Presenting the Whole Package
by brittaden
Summary: Part three in the "Presenting..." series. Luke and Lorelai are now married and they are working on getting the whole package.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls.**

 **So after the Gilmore Girls reunion this weekend and all the great photos of the cast that came of that, I was inspired to finally finish what I started for the third installment in this series.**

 **Just a little note: In this story, I wanted to delve into their married life so it doesn't pick up exactly where it left off in the last installment. Instead this jumps ahead a few months. Really it's just set around the beginning of Season 4.**

 **Hope it's not too complicated for you to understand where this is going.**

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"I can't believe you couldn't get Luke to help us with this," Rory said as she and her mother walked through the town square, occasionally stopping by different houses to distribute the trinkets and gifts that they brought back from their backpacking through Europe excursion.

Lorelai shifted her overstuffed backpack around, trying to ease the pain that was beginning to settle in her shoulders. She knew that they would have to stop to take a break soon no matter how quickly she wanted to distribute all the gifts so they could finally rid of these backpacks. Distributing the gifts quickly meant more time to spend with her daughter and her husband.

"Oh believe me I pulled out some of my best tricks last night and again this morning and still nothing," Lorelai replied with a sigh. "I mean I even..."

Rory held up her hand to stop her mother from going any further. "Whoa, consider your audience here. Consider the ears that are listening, do I want to hear this? Is this something you're willing to share with your precious daughter?"

Lorelai smirked at her daughter, "Get your mind out of the gutter Rory. I just reminded him that he is my husband and that we took vows to be there for one another and care for another."

"And his response to that was?" Rory asked.

"That there was nothing in our vows about lugging around backpacks and distributing gifts that your wife and step-daughter picked up Europe," Lorelai replied. She adjusted her backpack on her shoulders again. "This marriage thing is not all it's cracked up to be."

Rory laughed, "Just because he refuses to carry your backpack?"

Lorelai nodded, "Exactly."

"I think you two will make this through this," Rory played along.

"Besides it's not like I'm the only person with a fella in her life that could have helped us with these," Lorelai said as she looked at her daughter. "I don't see your boyfriend anywhere around here."

"Luke scheduled him to work in the diner today," Rory stated. "I think he only did that so we were carrying us around all this stuff by ourselves."

"We shouldn't have left them alone all summer," Lorelai replied. "They probably planned all kinds of things against us."

Rory giggled, "I'm sure they haven't."

As they neared Luke's, they made the decision, without even speaking to one another, that it was definitely time for a food break as well as a break from carrying around their overstuffed backpacks. Entering Luke's, their backpacks found a place by the door, Rory made sure that they were out of the way of the other customers. They sat down at a round table near the door and near their backpacks.

"You know," Lorelai said as she waited for Luke to appear and notice that she and Rory were definitely there, "We could just set up shop here. You know, tell everyone that if they want their presents, then they must stop by Luke's at which point we will entertain them with the Pope story and hand them their gift then send them on their merry way. It eliminates the need for our backpacks."

"Yeah I don't think Luke's going to go for that one since he didn't even go for him carrying around the backpack while you distribute gifts," Rory replied. Her eyes flickered towards the diner counter where she saw Jess exiting the kitchen, she smiled at him before turning towards her mother. "Be right back."

Lorelai smiled and nodded in response, understanding her daughter's need to see her boyfriend after a long summer spent apart. They had just arrived back home the day before, a day that was solely devoted to spending time with Luke and Jess and regaling them with tales of their adventures even though they already knew most everything from the postcards, letters, and calls that were made during the trip. Still they just wanted to recount everything again and the men in their life didn't mind listening to them.

True to their plans for after Rory's graduation from Chilton, Lorelai and Rory had spent the most part of their summer backpacking through Europe. They decided to not just toss those plans aside since Lorelai was now a wedded woman. Of course Luke knew just how important this trip was for both of the girls even if he didn't care for the idea of them spending their time in hostels. But Lorelai insisted it was all a part of the experience. However, they got to really missing their lives at home so they decided that heading home a week earlier than originally planned was not the worst thing in the world.

Tired of waiting on Luke to show his face, Lorelai got up from the table, walked to the counter, interrupted her daughter and Jess smooching, and asked where Luke was. When Jess told her that he was currently in the storeroom, she told them that they could now resume their smooching before she disappeared behind the curtain.

Lorelai leaned in the doorway of the storeroom and watched as Luke unpacked boxes and began to shelve the items. "So inventory is more important than greeting your beautiful wife whom you haven't really seen all summer?" she asked.

Luke looked up from the box he was currently unpacking to see Lorelai standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and eyebrow arched. The serious look on her face broke out into a smile causing the same kind of smile to appear on his face.

"Hey," Luke greeted as he walked over to her. "I didn't even hear the bells."

Lorelai titled her head to the side as arms curved around his neck, pulling him close to her. "Getting old already?" she teased. "I didn't sign on for marrying such an old man."

Luke reached up and grabbed her left hand, his thumb ran over the two rings on her ring finger. "Well I think it may be too late now, you already have the ring."

Lorelai smiled, "That I do." She gave a casual shrug of her shoulders, "Besides it would be such a hassle to take it off and you're not that bad looking."

Luke rolled his eyes, "So sweet."

"Well you know me."

No more words were needed as Luke leaned in and kissed her lips softly. But that wasn't even for Lorelai as pressed her lips against his harder, deepening the kiss. Luke's arm wrapped securely around his waist as he pulled her into the room and managed to shut the door with his free hand, all the while keeping their lips connected. Her fingers twirled in the curls at the nape of his neck as he pressed her against the storeroom door.

Lorelai let out a soft moan as he pulled on her lower lip gently only to release it seconds later. His lips then descended onto her neck, expertly seeking out the sensitive spots he knew that she loved. She craned her neck to the side to give him better access.

She couldn't even put into words just how much she missed him over the summer. Yes there were phone calls made, and letters and postcards sent, but none of that was the same as actually being with Luke. And it wasn't just the attention he was giving her now that she missed, it was the small things like waking up in the morning, cuddling up to him, and just enjoying the peacefulness before they both had to start their days. Or coming home to him in the evenings and complaining about her day and the new ways that Michel found to annoy her. She quickly found that she loved the married life.

Lorelai moved her hand to cup the side of his face, bringing his face back level with hers. The neediness she felt just moments ago had dissipated as they melted together again with shorter, sweeter, more loving kisses. She eventually pulled back and flashed him a sweet smile.

"I've missed you," she confessed softly.

Luke smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I've missed you too," he said just as softly as Lorelai did.

Lorelai giggled softly, "So you proved last night a few times. And again this morning."

"We missed out on a lot of time together, we had a lot to make up for," Luke replied.

Lorelai nodded, "Mhm, so we did," she whispered before pressing a kiss to his lips. When she pulled back, she rested her forehead against his. "You know what else I missed?"

"What?"

Lorelai flashed him a bright smile. "Coffee! And the cheeseburgers, the fries, the pies, the danishes, and pretty much whatever else I can get here. I mean, don't get me wrong, the European food was great, but I really missed your cheeseburgers."

Luke chuckled. "I should have known." He reached behind Lorelai and opened the storeroom door, he gently nudged her in that direction. "Go on Crazy Lady, I'll make your lunch."

"My hero," Lorelai swooned as she re-entered the diner.

Lorelai gave Luke her order of coffee, cheeseburger, and chili-cheese fries before she walked back to her table. Just seconds after she sat down, Rory walked up to the table but instead of sitting down with her mother, she knelt down and began going through her backpack.

"What are you doing there kid?" Lorelai asked. "I thought we were having lunch. I already gave Luke my order."

Rory continued to rifle through her backpack, "Well Jess is taking his break so I thought I would walk around town with him and he could help me deliver Lane's present to her," she said as she pulled the wrapped present for her best friend from her backpack.

"But what about lunch? I thought we were both hungry," Lorelai reminded her daughter. "What are you going to eat if you're leaving? You should know that I'm not going to wait on you."

Rory reached into the front pocket of her backpack and pulled out a small white bag. "Biscotti," she answered. "I'll eat this while I deliver the present to Lane."

Lorelai mock-gasped. "Our biscotti? You would take our special biscotti for our biscotti moments and eat it in place of lunch?" she asked to which Rory just nodded in response. She crossed her arms, "Fine. Just make sure that you save mommy some for later."

"Of course I'll save some for you," Rory replied. "I'll even fight off Jess if he tries to take away."

"If I try to take any of what?" Jess asked as he walked up beside Rory.

Rory held up the white bag, "The biscotti." When Jess tried to reach for the bag, Rory playfully slapped his hand away. "I'm serious, no biscotti for you. This is for Mom and me."

"Exactly," Lorelai chimed in. "For special moments, or for Rory choosing to leave her mother by herself in order to hang out with her boyfriend and best friend."

"She did just spend all summer with you," Jess replied.

Lorelai pretended to think for a moment. "Nope, not enough."

"Good thing that we have almost every single moment planned out from here until the day I have to leave for Yale," Rory replied.

Lorelai placed her hands over her ears, "Remember what I said, no talk of Yale until the day you have to leave. I don't want to think about you leaving just yet."

Rory laughed, "Well we do have every moment planned out until that day so you can let me hang out with Jess and Lane for a while now, right?"

Lorelai sighed then smiled at her daughter, "Just go before I change my mind."

Rory leaned down and kissed her mother on the cheek, "I'll be back to help you distribute the rest of the gifts later."

"You better," Lorelai replied.

Lorelai waved to the two teenagers as they walked out of the diner. She watched them as they walked across the street and went to meet Lane out at the gazebo. After a few seconds, she got up from the table and made her way over to the counter where Luke greeted her with a cup of coffee.

"Rory's not eating lunch with you?" he asked.

Lorelai shook her head, "Nope. She and Jess are going to spend a little time together, she's delivering her present to Lane. So you just have me."

Luke peeked over at her shoulders where he could see her and Rory's backpacks still lying on the floor beside the table she just occupied, "Planning on moving your bags?"

Lorelai shook her head again and gave him a sweet smile, "Not unless my handsome husband wants to move them for me." When she noticed Luke's frown she added, "Don't worry grumpy pants, I'll move them after lunch. Rory and I still have gifts to distribute."

"You know you could just split up the gifts so you don't have to carry them all at once," Luke pointed out.

"We could, or we could have someone who wears a lot of flannel to help us out but he refused," Lorelai reminded him. "Rory and I planned to get them all out at one time so we have more time to spend together. And if we get all the gifts out soon then that means you and I will also have more time to spend together."

"Can't complain about that," Luke replied.

"I didn't think you would."

Luke leaned across the counter and pecked her lips. "I'll be right back with your lunch."

"Thanks babe," Lorelai called after him.

With the sparse crowd in the diner and Luke now in the kitchen cooking her lunch, Lorelai was left alone with just her coffee and her thoughts. And her mind was racing with many different thoughts. All ones that revolved around just how much her life had changed recently and how much it was going to change in the coming weeks. It was easy to push some of it to the back of her mind while she was in Europe, like Rory going off to college, but now they were back home and everything was rushing back to her.

Rory was set to go off to Yale in just a few short weeks. Which Lorelai now knew was only 22.8 miles away thanks to Jess' handy research, which he claimed to not to have done. The thought of sending her baby off to Yale upset her but it was the next big step for her daughter. Rory choosing Yale over Harvard came as surprise to Lorelai and most people around her since Harvard was all Rory talked about since she was a little but people, as well as plans change over time. She knew that well. A few years ago she may have laughed if someone would have told her that she would fall madly in love with Luke and end up starting a new life with him because she would have insisted that they were just friends. However, now she couldn't imagine anything other than being with Luke. Besides pro-con lists never lied, especially not in the dire need of which college to choose. Frankly she was ecstatic that her daughter was going off to a college that was so close to home. Being close to home meant more weekend visits.

As for Jess, he wasn't going off to a college or even enrolling in a community college anywhere. Even though he stuck with it and graduated from high-school per Luke's request, he knew that college just wasn't for him. Maybe at one point it could be but for now it just wasn't happening. Luke made sure that Jess knew that he wasn't going to just waste his time doing nothing and that he was going to work. He already worked at the diner but also managed to secure a job working at the bookstore with Andrew.

Rory going off to college wasn't the only change occurring into what was now known as the Gilmore-Danes household, in fact the most major change in their lifestyle lie in the fact that they no longer had the Crap Shack to call home. Instead they had a new place to call home. A place called home that was a wedding present from Emily and Richard. With it sitting on 3 acres of land and containing 5 bedrooms, 4 ½ baths, a library, and a sun porch as well as a small pond and stables, Luke and Lorelai thought the place was perfect for them to start their married life in. Lorelai knew that the Crap Shack was too small especially since she and Luke wanted children but the house that her mother and father bought for them was just big enough for their soon-to-be growing family.

Restoration and renovating was started on the house a few weeks after Luke and Lorelai returned home from their honeymoon. The house was in pretty good condition already so there were no major problems to fix which meant Luke and Lorelai were able to move in a couple weeks before Rory graduated, giving them a chance to adjust to their new digs before they set out to on their backpacking adventure. The only problem they could find with the house is that it technically wasn't in Stars Hollow but right on the border. But with a little arm-twisting and maybe a threat or two, they managed to get Taylor to change the property lines so they would still have a Stars Hollow address.

Lorelai's career took a major turn as well, for the better of course. When Mia learned of Lorelai and Sookie's plans to leave the Independence Inn to chase after their own dream of owning their own Inn, she decided to sell since she received a few amazing offers. Seeing Mia sell the Independence Inn gave Lorelai and Sookie the final push to start working on their own dream instead of just talking about it. It was a long and stressful battle but the two finally managed to secure the Dragonfly Inn, the only place they could imagine opening their own Inn. Construction was set to begin soon.

Lorelai and Luke adjusted to married life quickly, both appreciating the balance they were creating in the marriage and loving to have a great partner to come home to every night. However they both felt that something was missing. A baby something. Both Luke and Lorelai agreed that they wanted to start on their family right away. And they did. Lorelai went off birth control a few weeks before the wedding and then after the wedding, they began trying to start a family. Their efforts had not been rewarded yet though. There were a couples times when she thought she was pregnant only to come up with a negative pregnancy test. They were not giving up hope yet though. A baby would come in time.

Lorelai was so lost in her thoughts of Rory going to college, their new house, their attempts at starting their own family, and beginning construction on her dream Inn, that she didn't even notice Luke standing in front of her holding out her plate of food.

"Lorelai," he called again finally getting her attention. "You okay?"

Lorelai nodded quickly, "I'm fine babe."

Luke sat down her plate and leaned down on the counter next to her. "You sure? You seemed pretty out of it there. If you need to talk about something, we can go up to the apartment. I know it Jess' now but he won't mind."

Lorelai gave him a reassuring smile, "I'm fine Luke, really. I was just thinking. You know about all that's going to happen in the next few weeks, a lot of changes happening."

Luke nodded, "I know." He have her hand a gentle squeeze, "But everything will be okay."

"I know, because I have you," Lorelai said, not intending her voice to come out as soft as it did.

Luke smiled, "That's right."

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 **I tried to use this chapter to get you all caught up on what happened since the wedding and where I decided to start this story off. Hopefully it all works out. Excited to finally be posting this. I have so many ideas for this story!**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews/follows!**

 **This chapter is just a fluffy jumble of characters before we really hop into my version of Season 4. Hope you enjoy!**

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Lorelai sat on the couch with her feet tucked up underneath her as she scribbled notes down onto the pink Hello Kitty notepad in her hand. Beside her on the couch, her date book lay open, full of all the activities that she and Rory carefully planned for their time together before it was time to send Rory off to Yale. The past two weeks were evidence of that planning with activities ranging from a day trip to New York just for fun to a spa day where they were quite literally pampered from head to toe, resulting in new hairdos for the each of them. Rory went a little shorter with her hair while Lorelai kept her length but just freshened up her color a little.

Now they were in the homestretch, so to speak. In just a few days, six days to be exact, the big day would be upon them. Yale freshman move-in day or the day that her baby bird would leave the nest and fly away, as Lorelai liked to refer to it. They still had a few activities planned for this week though. The activities this week were composed from idea that Rory needed to go shopping for dorm room essentials, school supplies, and of course a few beauty essentials. But tonight before their epic week of shopping would begin, they were to attend a barbecue at Sookie and Jackson's to celebrate with them the end of summer and the beginning of Rory's college career.

Luke was currently out shopping for supplies for the dishes he planned to prepare for the barbecue at Sookie's tonight while Rory was probably hanging around the diner while Jess worked where Lorelai was sure they were making googly eyes at one another. With everyone out of the house, Lorelai was left at home by herself where she was trying to compose a list that separated the things she considered as essentials for Rory from the things that didn't necessarily need to be bought right away. She had just scribbled down a few more dorm room essentials when she heard the sound of the front door opening.

"Identify yourself person," Lorelai called out, unsure if it was her daughter or her husband entering the house.

"It's Luke," came the reply before the sound of the front door shutting.

Lorelai placed her notepad and pen into her datebook and closed her datebook around them before she got up from the couch. She met Luke the instant she walked into the living room with his arms laden down with different bags from Doose's market.

"Need any help?" she offered.

Luke shook his head. "I've got it," he replied, he took a step around Lorelai and headed towards the kitchen with Lorelai quickly following behind him.

Lorelai entered the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools that sat around the island in the kitchen while Luke moved around the kitchen unloading the bags he just brought in. When they were renovating the house, Lorelai said Luke could have free range of the kitchen since he was the only one who did all of the cooking. Of course, she chimed in with a few details but they were all just to help him along with the decorating of the kitchen. This kitchen was almost twice the size of the kitchen in the Crap Shack, which Luke loved about the house since it provided him more counter space when cooking. Through the invention of wedding presents, Luke was able to fill the kitchen with a lot of top-of-the-line kitchenware.

"What do you have there?" Luke asked as Lorelai once again began to write on her notepad.

"I'm making a list," Lorelai replied.

"A pro-con list? For what?"

"I make other lists besides pro-con lists," Lorelai said. "This is a list of things that we still need to get for Rory before she moves into her dorm. Although now I'm coming up on empty for things she might need." She sighed, "I'll just ask Rory what she needs whenever she gets home."

Lorelai moved her notepad and pen aside before she leaned her elbows down onto the counter and placed her head in her hands. "Now I'm free to watch you as you cook, one of my favorite things to do. Although to make this an even more entertaining to watch you should take your shirt off."

"I'm not cooking with my shirt off," Luke replied.

"Party pooper," Lorelai said as she feigned a pout. "I still don't see why you are bothering to cook anything for tonight. Sookie said that she and Jackson had it all covered. At most she said that you could help Jackson out with the grill if he needed it but there was no sense in you bringing anything over. She had it covered."

"It is common courtesy to bring a dish over when someone invites you over," Luke informed his wife. He grabbed the now empty paper bags and stored them the cabinet beneath the sink. "I didn't think you would be the one to complain about me cooking anything to bring over there."

"Oh trust me, I'm not complaining. I love when you cook," Lorelai replied. "I'm just trying to prevent another fight between the two of you. Remember when we invited them over when we first moved in and Sookie brought over food even though you said you would do all the cooking? That led to a fight between the two of you. A fight that I had to mediate because it was between my husband and best friend."

"No, we fought because she just assumed that I was going to burn the food which is why she brought a casserole over. I own a diner, I cook for a living, I don't burn my food," Luke replied in a bitter tone which caused Lorelai to laugh.

"Aww babe, you know you get emotional when you cook," Lorelai said in between giggles. When Luke turned around to face her, she tried to hide her laughter behind her hand but ultimately failed. Once she quieted down, she added, "I'm sorry but you know it's true. Whenever we argue, your burgers are what suffer the most."

"We weren't even arguing at that time, she just assumed that I was going to burn something," Luke commented. "That's the only reason she brought over a dish, that's what you said."

Lorelai nodded her head. "Okay, and what is the real reason you're bringing something over tonight?"

"I already told you, it is common courtesy," Luke replied.

Lorelai narrowed her eyes, not quite believing him at the moment. "Luke..." she urged.

"Fine," Luke huffed. "You could call it payback since she thought I was going to burn my food. I'm just bringing a few things over."

Lorelai laughed. "I knew it!" She slid off of her stool and walked over to Luke where she wrapped one arm around his waist and leaned against his side. "So what form does this payback come in?"

"It comes in the form of apple pie, and a couple of different appetizers," Luke replied. "I'm not messing with Sookie's meal, I'm just adding a few different items to the menu."

"You know how Sookie gets about her menus, she's not going to be happy. It may just seem like a barbecue but you know that Sookie is going to go all out," Lorelai commented. "She always does, it's in her nature."

"Then this can be just a little friendly competition," Luke said as he moved away from Lorelai and began to start working on the apple pie he planned to bake.

"You are terrible," Lorelai said lovingly. "But you do realize that you're doing all of this to a hormonal, pregnant woman, right?" she asked. "I'm not going to mediate a fight between the two of you if her pregnancy hormones kick in when she sees that you brought over your own food. You are on your own."

"I'll be fine."

"Hmm," Lorelai pondered. "We'll see about that."

She walked up behind Luke who was currently working on peeling the apples for his pie. She wrapped her arms around his waist and stretched onto her tip-toes until her head rested on his shoulder. She smiled, just enjoying being near him and watching him work in the kitchen. She always liked to watch him work in the kitchen.

Luke turned his head to face her, "What are you doing?"

Lorelai gave him a grin, "Watching you. I told you it's one of my favorite things to do."

"And you have to watch me this close?" Luke replied.

"Mhm," Lorelai hummed as she stretched a little more and managed to plant a kiss on the corner of his mouth. As he turned away from her, she continued to plant kisses along the side of his face occasionally dropping a few kisses down onto his neck.

"You're distracting me, you know that?"

"Oh I know," Lorelai replied with a smirk on her face. "Distracting you from cooking is all my part of my plan to take you upstairs and have my way with you."

"I do need to finish this before we go over to Sookie's tonight, we don't have that long before we need to go over there," Luke said.

Lorelai sighed and pulled away from him. "Choosing cooking over sex, where are your priorities?"

Luke chuckled as he opened up a drawer near him and grabbed an extra peeler. He held it out to Lorelai, "Here. Why don't you help me?"

"You want me to help you cook? Have you met me? I can't cook," Lorelai replied adamantly.

"I think you can manage to peel a few apples."

"You have such faith in me." Lorelai grabbed the peeler from him and picked up an apple. "We will just have to see if you are right."

Lorelai set out to start helping Luke out until suddenly Rory's voice cut through the silence that had fallen in the kitchen. "Mom, where are you?"

"Kitchen," Lorelai replied. "What's wrong, are you okay babe?"

Into the kitchen came a slightly furious looking Rory followed by Jess who had that smirk on his face that sometimes seems as if he were born with it. Rory didn't say anything, she just held up a poster emblazoned with the logo from Taylor's Old Fashioned Soda Shoppe he was finally opening up and accompanied by a picture of Rory dressed as a queen, declaring her as the ice cream queen.

"Wait, so you said yes to Taylor?" Lorelai asked, abandoning her attempt to help Luke. "Why didn't you tell me that you were accepting the position as Ice Cream Queen? I would have bought you a tiara."

"Because I didn't say yes to him!" Rory fumed. "I simply told him that I would think about it since I had a lot to do recently in order to prepare for Yale but I never said yes. He just went ahead and made me the Ice Cream Queen without my permission!"

Lorelai knew that she should probably be on her daughter's side and be furious at Taylor for something like this but Rory's reaction was just too funny to not poke fun at. "So tell me, Ice Cream Queen Rory, do you get a special discount? If so can you extend that discount to family members like say your dear mommy who just so happens to love ice cream?"

"Mom, this isn't a joke," Rory ranted. "It's...well it's..." she faltered. "It's an invasion of privacy, that what it is. I mean where did he even get this picture?" she asked as she waved the poster around.

"Probably from the same place he got the picture the time you were the poster-child for censorship," Jess smirked, earning him an angry glare from his girlfriend.

Lorelai couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips. "That's right! First the Rory curtain and now Rory, Queen of the Ice Cream. Tell me Queen, what is your next plan in this slow but sure-fire way to take over Stars Hollow?"

"That wasn't funny and neither is this," Rory replied, frustrated with both her mother and her boyfriend.

"It is a little funny," Jess replied. "They were both a little funny."

"It's still not funny," Rory fumed. "I never gave my permission for these things. Taylor just did them and used my picture without my permission."

"Well it's not like Ice Cream Queen is the worst kind of queen you could be," Lorelai added in. "I mean you're the Queen of Ice Cream, what more could you ask for?"

"I could ask for somebody to use permission before they use my picture," Rory defended herself. She looked over at Luke who hadn't yet chimed in on the conversation. "I bet Luke will be on my side. This is a total invasion of privacy, isn't it Luke?"

"Rory is right," Luke piped up. "This is a total invasion of privacy."

Lorelai shook her head, "Okay you two are both taking this way too far. Maybe he should have waited for you to give an answer before he printed the poster but it's just a silly little title. Soon Kirk will do something crazy and this will all be forgotten. Isn't only for the opening of the shop anyways?"

"Yes but I still don't like the posters being posted all around town," Rory replied.

"Fine, I'll go around town, collect all the posters then sneak over to Taylor's house and plaster the posters all over the outside of his house," Lorelai said, "To show him that he shouldn't do things without people's permission."

At that moment, Luke looked over at Jess. "That is not a suggestion as to what you should do." He pointed to Lorelai. "Do not let her give you any ideas."

"Me? Pull a prank?" Jess asked with as innocent of a face as he could pull off. "I would never do anything like that Uncle Luke."

"Smart ass," Luke mumbled under his breath.

"It is a good idea though," Lorelai said with a laugh.

"A creepy idea," Rory chimed in. "I don't want posters of me plastered all around Taylor's house, that's just weird."

"Do I need to have Luke talk to Taylor about this?" Lorelai asked. "Luke could convince him to take all the posters down."

Rory shook her head, "It's fine. I can deal with it. I am almost a college student you know."

Lorelai sighed. "My baby is all grown up. All grown up and now the Ice Cream Queen."

"Are you ever going to stop calling me that?" Rory quipped.

Lorelai gave a casual shrug of her shoulders, "I don't know. Give it a few days."

Rory let out a frustrated sigh. "I guess I should go talk with Taylor about this," she gestured to the poster. "See if I even have time to do what he expects of me."

"Have fun," Lorelai called after her daughter and Jess as they turned to walk out of the kitchen and leave the house. Once they were out of sight, she turned back to Luke and smiled. "Still need my apple peeling expertise?"

Luke picked up the peeler and apple she abandoned and handed it back to her. "Just don't cut yourself."

* * *

Later that night, after enjoying the food both Sookie and Luke prepared for the barbecue, Lorelai and Sookie were cleaning up a little of the dinner mess before dessert was to be served while Luke and Jackson were still outside. There were some initial arguments about Luke bringing over the food he prepared but, even though she said she wouldn't, Lorelai stepped in and managed to calm Sookie down over Luke adding things to her menu.

"Where did Jess and Rory sneak off to?" Sookie asked as she moved about the kitchen.

"Outside," Lorelai answered. "They're on the porch in the swing."

"Ahh young love," Sookie cooed.

"Yeah, I think they have spent every waking moment together since we returned home. Well every waking moment that Rory hasn't spent with me that is," Lorelai replied.

"They do make a cute couple," Sookie observed. "How do you think it's going to be with her at Yale soon?"

Lorelai thought for a moment then let out a sigh as she shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. She won't be living here anymore but it's not like she'll be that far away. I do like her with Jess and she's very happy with him but it could still be hard for them, especially since soon she'll be busy with all of her college goings-on."

"Yeah," Sookie agreed. She, however, was quickly distracted from her thoughts on Rory and Jess when she placed a hand on her pregnant belly as the baby started to kick. "Ooh the baby's kicking."

Lorelai gasped softly, "I want to feel." She walked over to where Sookie was standing and placed her hands on either side of her friend's belly. She smiled when she felt the baby move against her hand. "Isn't feeling the baby move just the coolest thing?"

"It is," Sookie agreed with a squeal.

"Is Jackson still not budging on his whole 'I'm not finding out the sex of the baby until it is born thing?" Lorelai asked.

Sookie shook her head. "Nope. I almost spilled it and told him it was a boy the other day. He freaked out."

Lorelai laughed. "I bet he did." After telling Sookie's unborn child that she was his Aunt Lorelai, she removed her hands from her friend's belly. "I can't wait to be pregnant again. Luke and I want to have a baby."

"Oh and if it happens soon, our kids can grow up together! That would be so cool. Aww and then if you have a girl, our kids could grow up together then date then get married," Sookie started to ramble on. "It would be like something out of a movie."

Lorelai held her hand up in an attempt to impede the chefs' rambling, "Okay, hold it Sookie. I'm not even pregnant, don't try to marry off a kid that doesn't even exist yet."

"I did get carried away, didn't I?" Sookie asked.

Lorelai nodded her head, "Just a little." She started to snack on the small assortment of vegetables on a tray that Sookie assembled. "Have you and Jackson decided on any names yet?"

Sookie shook her head, "I'm letting him think that he has a choice. Since he doesn't know it's a boy, I'm letting him suggest some weird names if we were to have a girl but I'm also trying not to be too obvious so he has listed some crazy names for a boy too."

"You're not going to name your kid after a vegetable, are you?" Lorelai asked skeptically.

"Jackson's not that obsessed with his vegetable crop," Sookie replied but when she saw the look on Lorelai's face, she quickly added on. "Okay, he's a little more obsessed than the average guy but he wouldn't name his kid after a vegetable."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Sookie replied though her voice betrayed her. She quickly shook her head, "I will veto any vegetable and fruit names."

"I think that's the best choice you could make."

Sookie grabbed both the desserts she prepared for the night and turned to head towards the door indicating for Lorelai to follow her outside. Lorelai didn't fail to notice that Sookie left the pie that Luke made sitting on the counter. She swiftly picked it up and followed her friend out the door.

"So your way of getting back at Luke for bringing his own dessert over is to try and leave it inside?" Lorelai asked as she and Sookie walked out the door and out into the backyard.

"Hmm I forgot it was even in there," Sookie replied nonchalantly.

"Well I'm just a little offended at that notion since I did actually help to make this pie," Lorelai commented.

"You helped to make the pie?" Luke asked, hearing just the end of their conversation.

Lorelai nodded, "I did help to make the pie. You were there. You saw me."

"You peeled one apple," Luke replied. "And then I did everything else because you were distracted by a movie on TV."

"And it is the one apple that will make all the difference in this pie," Lorelai stated. "This may just be the best apple pie yet."

Luke shook his head but still smiled, "Crazy lady."

"And you love it."

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer in first chapter.**

 **Contains lines from "The Lorelais' First Day at Yale."**

 **Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows!**

* * *

Lorelai tossed and turned until she finally flopped on her side and caught sight of the alarm clock on her nightstand. 2:17 A.M. She flipped back onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. There wasn't anyway she was getting to sleep anytime soon. At least that's how she felt. Her mind raced, unable to stop just for a moment so she could sleep. Her eyes traced over Luke's sleeping form, his chest slowly rose up and down with even breaths telling her that he was peacefully sleeping while she laid next to him wide awake. A thought crossed her mind that she could wake him up and suggest they go for round two because sex could tire her out but he looked peaceful fast asleep and she ran the risk of a grumpy Luke tomorrow if she woke him up now. That idea was abandoned.

Careful not to wake Luke, Lorelai slipped out of bed. She grabbed her discarded pajamas from earlier that night and dressed before she padded out of the room and down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, she turned and headed in the direction of Rory's room. Just like in their old house, Rory chose for her bedroom to be on the ground floor. Lorelai joked the reason she chose that room was because it was the closest room to what the real-estate agent described as a library. Which is currently served as, as well as a make-shift office space for both Lorelai and Luke.

Lorelai began to tip-toe as she approached Rory's room, trying her best to keep quiet at this late hour. Or very early hour depending on how one looked at it. She leaned in the doorway and watched her teenaged daughter sleep. It seemed bittersweet that in just a manner of a few hours her daughter would fly the coop, so to speak. In the morning when she woke, Rory would officially become a dorm-living college freshman while Lorelai returned to a home that no longer housed her daughter full-time. At the moment she was grateful for Luke because she didn't know if she could handle returning home to a completely empty house.

Lorelai began to tip-toe again as she moved into Rory's room and carefully sat down on the edge of the bed. Her hand gently came down and rested on the young girl's shoulder. She found it only slightly ridiculous that she felt this emotional over her daughter leaving. It wasn't like Rory was going far away. Just 22.8 miles away. And she would come home on the weekends and even when she didn't, they still had Friday Night dinners where they could catch up. But still Rory was moving on with a new phase in her life, so many new opportunities would be open to her in the coming weeks. Lorelai was moving on with a new phase in her life as well, one where her daughter didn't live with her, one where she was still learning the ins-and-outs of married life, and one where she would soon start work on her dream of owning an Inn with her best friend.

Lorelai initially tensed when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder but she relaxed when she knew it could only be one person coming to her side. She tilted her head back and managed a soft smile as she looked up at her husband. She wasn't even aware that she had been silently crying until Luke knelt down in front of her and used the pad of this thumb to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"Hey, what's going on?" Luke asked softly.

"I couldn't sleep," Lorelai answered.

Luke glanced over at Rory's sleeping form. Not wanting to wake her, he stood up, grabbed Lorelai's hand and led her out of the room. His hand rubbed across Lorelai's back as she leaned into him. "Are you okay?"

Lorelai sniffled as she pulled back from him. "I'm fine. I just couldn't sleep so I came down here and then it just all hit me that Rory's leaving for Yale and then when we come home tomorrow she won't be here because she'll be in her dorm."

"Yale's not that far away," Luke reminded her. "You know she'll come home on the weekends and possibly sometimes during the week. It's not like you're going to have to go a long time without seeing her."

"I know," Lorelai sighed. "It's just the idea of coming home tomorrow and knowing that she won't be here, except maybe on the weekends, it's upsetting. I guess that would be a good word. You know I'm excited for her to move forward with this next step but I'm still a little sad. She's just growing up and soon she won't need me anymore."

"That's understandable. You're her mother, you have every right to be upset," Luke said reassuringly. He took her in his arms again and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Rory is going to be fine at Yale. Just because she'll be at Yale, it doesn't mean that she won't need you. You're her mother, she will always need you. Everything will be okay."

"I know, I know," Lorelai repeated, taking assurance in his words.

"And, you know," Luke said with a slight shrug of his shoulders, "if you get to really missing her, you can always spend the night on the floor in her dorm."

Lorelai laughed lightly and tilted her head to look up at her husband. "I'll keep that in mind," she said before she cuddled her head back to his chest.

They stayed like that for several moments. Luke's arms wrapped around her waist holding her close. One of his hands moved along her back, gently caressing her in a comforting motion. Lorelai's head nuzzled into the crook of his neck, seeking all the comfort that her husband could provide for her. Eventually Luke suggested that they go up to bed since they did have to be up in just a few hours to move everything into Rory's dorm. As they laid down in bed Lorelai cuddled up as close as possible to Luke and found that his soft whispers and warm body now made it easy to fall asleep.

* * *

"Wait! Another picture," Lorelai called after her daughter as they both made their way out of the house. She stopped on the porch nearly causing Luke to run into her as she lifted the camera up to her face and quickly snapped a picture.

"Jeez," Luke mumbled under his breath. He stepped around Lorelai and continued on to his truck.

"Mom," Rory groaned as she turned on her heel to face her mother. "What were you even taking a picture of that time? I wasn't even facing the camera."

"Exactly! It was candid. It was you walking out to your car; walking out to your car to head off to college. It was a great shot to signify that you are indeed going off to college because you are literally walking away from the camera," Lorelai replied quickly.

"Mom if you keep stopping to take pictures, we're going to be late," Rory announced. She checked the time on her wrist-watch. "Actually we're already late."

"Are you that eager to get away from your mommy?" Lorelai teased as she moved off the porch and walked towards Rory. "Because if you are, I'll just say goodbye to you now. I won't even worry about helping you move."

"You know it's not that," Rory responded. "But we're running late and if we don't leave soon then there might not be any close parking spots which means more trouble moving and I don't want to be the last person to arrive at the dorm. I might miss something!"

"Calm down sweets, we'll leave now. You're not going to miss anything. I'll make sure of that," Lorelai tried to reassure her daughter. She put the camera strap on her shoulder. "I promise no more pictures until we get there. Let's go."

Rory smiled, "Let's go then."

The mother and daughter departed ways with Rory climbing into her car while Lorelai headed towards Luke's truck that he was already sitting in as he waited for her. However as soon as Lorelai climbed into the passenger side of the truck, Rory called out to her asking her mother if she would ride with her instead of Luke. Lorelai hid the smirk that wanted to form on her face and told her daughter that she would be there in just a minute.

"Looks like she needs you," Luke said.

Lorelai gave him a soft smile, "It would seem so." She leaned across the seat and quickly pecked at his lips. "I'll see ya at the dorms then."

As Lorelai turned to climb out of the truck, Luke reached for her hand and gently squeezed it to get her attention. "You okay?" he asked once she turned to face him.

Lorelai nodded in acknowledgment. "I'm okay. Later I might not be as okay when we have to leave her at the dorm and come home but now I'm okay."

"Good," Luke said with a smile. He nodded his head in the direction of Rory's car. "You should go on."

With that Lorelai climbed out of the truck and headed to join Rory in her car where, once in the passenger's seat, she couldn't help but crack a few jokes on how they weren't even out of the yard yet before Rory called out for her mommy. The jokes continued as Rory started to drive away from the house and in the direction of New Haven followed by Jess and Luke, both in their respective vehicles.

"Okay fine," Rory said with an exasperated sigh as she cast a glance towards her mother before focusing back on the road. "I'll admit it, I needed my mom to ride with me to college."

"Glad to hear you admit it," Lorelai replied, laughter rang out in her voice. "What are you going to do when I eventually have to leave you at Yale in your dorm all by yourself?"

"Well it's not like I be all alone, I will have roommates so I think I will be okay," Rory answered. She tried to hide the uncertainty in her voice. Of course, she knew that her mother would have to leave her there and that she would be living almost on her own now but for some reason it didn't hit her until just this morning.

"I know you will be sweets," Lorelai said confidently. And there was no doubt in her mind that Rory wouldn't be anything other than okay. Her daughter could do anything if she set her mind to it. "I just hope that you don't have any crazy roommates. Like ones that will flip out because you play your music a little too loud or because you leave your books lying around or..."

She couldn't give another scenario that might give a person to freak out because Rory interrupted her, the panic evident in her voice. "Mom! You're not supposed to tell me that my roommates might be potentially crazy. You're supposed to tell me that everything is going to be okay! Not that I might be living with a psychopathic serial killer."

"Okay first no panicking while driving, we want to get you to Yale in one piece," Lorelai tried to soothe her daughter. "And I didn't say that you would be rooming with a psychopathic serial killer, you came up with that one on your own."

"Well I wasn't worried about my roommates until you started listing things about potentially bad roommates. What if I do end up with really terrible roommates? How will I survive a whole year with them?" Rory asked, still in a panicky voice.

"You will just have to spend a whole lot of time hanging out at the house," Lorelai joked. Rory made a face at her mother's suggestion which prompted Lorelai to speak again. "I was only kidding. I take back everything I've said about your roommates. I'm sure they'll be nice people. You'll room with them, find out that you like them, and form lifelong friendships. You won't have crazies as roommates."

Rory took one hand off the steering wheel and pointed at her mother as if she was scolding her. "You are no longer allowed to talk about roommates until I actually meet them and decide whether or not if they are crazy."

Lorelai gave a nod of her head and casual shrug of her shoulders. "Fair enough."

A much shorter than anticipated car ride and absolutely no more roommate talk later, Rory pulled her car into a Yale parking lot and quickly found enough parking spots close to the buildings for her, Jess, and Luke. While Rory went off to look for someone to help guide her to her dorm, Lorelai blocked off the spots until Luke and Jess arrived. She may have angered a few Yale students in the process but it was worth since the spots were close to the dorms which meant they wouldn't have trek all over the campus to carry Rory's belongings to her dorm suite.

Right as Luke and Jess arrived, Rory made her way back to her mother with her Freshman Counselor named Tess by her side. Since she missed the initial meeting that was definitely a photo opportunity, Lorelai made Rory reenact meeting Tess for the first time as well as receiving the key to her dorm suite. It only took Lorelai a few tries in order to get the perfect picture. Once the pictures were taken, including a picture of Luke and Jess both grumbling over how long it was taking Lorelai to snap a few pictures, Lorelai and Rory headed towards the dorms and left the men in their lives to begin unloading all of Rory's stuff.

Lorelai plucked Rory's dorm key from her hand, "Ready to see your dorm suite for the first time?" When Rory nodded but then quickly focused back on the map in her hands, Lorelai put the key in the lock and opened the door. She smiled, "Just like I pictured it."

Unfortunately Rory's enthusiasm for seeing her dorm suite for the first time did not seem to match her mother's enthusiasm. While Lorelai pointed out such things as the fireplace and which room in the suite was Rory's all Rory could focus on the ripped off piece of her map and the location of the phone-jack.

Lorelai, fed up with Rory not taking in the experience, put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, turned her around, and began to push her out of the room. "All right, that's it."

"Hey, what are you doing?" Rory asked as she tried to look over her shoulder at her mother.

"You just missed it," Lorelai replied as she steered Rory towards the open dorm suite door.

"Missed what?"

"Walking into your dorm suite for the first time," Lorelai answered. "Do over." She shook her head at Luke and Jess who tried to enter the room both with arms loaded down with Rory's belongings. "Nope, no going into the room until Rory experiences it for the very first time."

"What?" Luke grumbled.

Lorelai led Rory out into the hallway. "Someone was too busy with her map to properly take in her dorm suite for the first time so no one is going on until she's experiences it properly."

"Let's just hurry," Rory said, earning a nod from her boyfriend. "We're short on time and I'm sure Jess and Luke don't want to stand there holding everything."

"She's not wrong," Jess added in.

"Hush you," Lorelai ordered. "No more complaints from anyone. Rory is going to experience going into her dorm suite for the first time then you guys may come in."

"Mom," Rory groaned.

Lorelai turned to her daughter, "You're going to be in the moment or the rest of the map gets it."

After she instructed Luke and Jess to stay behind until she called for them to enter, Lorelai walked with Rory into the dorm suite and pointed out the same things she did before. Once they were actually in Rory's own room and Lorelai decided that Rory had properly experienced walking into her dorm suite for the first time, she called Luke and Jess into the room where she directed them where to set down the items they carried.

"See aren't you glad that we had this do-over so you could experience the joy of walking into your dorm suite for this first time?" Lorelai asked.

Rory nodded in agreement, "I'm glad we had this do-over. Thank you."

"No problem sweets," Lorelai said, "And thank you."

"For what?"

"For pretending that you're not at this moment thinking about missing your tour, finding your phone-jack, navigating the Old Campus," Lorelai listed off.

Rory smiled, "It's my gift to you."

Lorelai placed her hands on her hips and gazed around at the room. She knew that they still had plenty of stuff to unload but she also knew that Rory was anxious to go on her tour, get a new map, and do the rest of the activities that were planned for the incoming freshman. She clapped her hands together once before speaking.

"Okay I have an idea," Lorelai announced. She turned to Rory, "Since you're still silently freaking out about your map and missing your tour, why don't you and Jess go see if you can find a new map then maybe join your tour while Luke and I unload the rest of the stuff? That way you don't miss anything."

"Sounds good to me," Rory replied. She turned to Jess. "Sound good to you?"

"I can help you find your map," Jess answered.

"Bless you," Rory said.

He offered his arm out to Rory before they strolled out of the dorm suite while Rory yammered on about where she thought the place to get maps was but wasn't quite sure since, ironically enough, that was the part currently missing from her map.

"Okay now you and I need to hurry and unload the rest of Rory's stuff because we have a parent orientation to attend that starts soon," Lorelai said as she looked up at Luke. "And I know that you might not want to sit through orientation but you are a parent of Rory so you're going to sit through it with me. I'm sure there will be enough mocking material for the both of us."

Luke's eyebrow lifted up, "Does Rory want you to go to the parent orientation or do you really want to go?"

"Well I want to be an informed Yalie parent," Lorelai replied, "But also Rory insisted that I should go because I could miss something important that they didn't tell her in her orientation and she wants to be as informed as possible before she does anything at Yale."

"Makes sense," Luke said. He glanced down at the mattress that was currently on Rory's bed, "What are we going to do with that mattress? That Tess girl was asking me if I called ahead for someone to take the old mattress away when she saw the new mattress in the back of my truck."

"Yeah, well, I called a guy to come and remove the mattress," Lorelai lied. "That nasty microbe mattress will leave this dorm room some way or another."

"You called someone?" Luke questioned. "Who did you call?"

"Ghostbusters?" Lorelai quipped.

Luke shook his head. He knew her too well. "You didn't call anyone to remove the mattress, did you?"

"See that's where you're wrong Luke, I called someone."

"Who?"

Lorelai grinned and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Well his name is Luke, he's very handsome, I happen to be married to the guy, and he would do absolutely anything for his step-daughter Rory. And that includes taking this nasty microbe mattress away so she doesn't have to sleep on it and she can sleep on the comfortable new mattress that he was so kind to buy her."

"What are we going to do with the old mattress?" Luke asked.

Lorelai shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Take it back home and find somewhere to store it? We do have some room at the house. I'm sure we can find somewhere to store the microbe mattress."

"Fine," Luke sighed, he knew he had no other choice. "But if that Tess girl questions me again about the mattress, you are dealing with her."

"It's a deal babe." Lorelai unwrapped her arms from around his waist and instead gripped his hand in hers. She gently tugged on his hand as she led him out of the room and out of the dorm suite. "Now let's go finish unloading and then go to parent orientation."

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed! As always reviews are appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows so far!**

 **Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"Hey sweets," Lorelai chirped into her cell-phone as she walked through Stars Hollow, the destination she had in mind being the diner. "Any chance you miss your beautiful mother enough to come home and stay with her?"

Rory sighed heavily before giving her answer. "The answer is the same it is been every time we have talked since I moved to Yale, I do miss you but I can't come home. I am a Yalie now."

"I know, I know, I was just seeing if you changed your mind since we talked yesterday. I know you are missing me more than you let on," Lorelai claimed. "But it still seems that you're determined to get away from your oh-so wonderful mother."

"Well I did finally manage to escape. And once you manage to escape, you can't just go back. At least not willingly. I have to celebrate my new found independence."

"Ha-ha very funny," Lorelai replied dryly. She sent a smile and wave in Miss Patty's direction as she passed by the dance studio. Suddenly, she could hear a whole lot of commotion happening on Rory's end of the call. "Okay, what is going on over at Yale? Whatever it is, it's loud."

"That would be Paris," Rory informed her mother. "Her whole calm demeanor from move-in day hasn't lasted too long. She is already arguing with the newest roommate over the exercise equipment she brought with her."

Lorelai groaned at the idea of working out, something she and Rory weren't really fans of. "Well it sounds like you'll get along real nice with her. You know since you're both exercise aficionados and all."

"Exactly," Rory replied. "As you can still hear, she and Paris get along really well. Which is why I'm going to take a walk around campus."

Lorelai pushed the door to the diner open and began to maneuver her way through the lunch rush crowd while she tried to find at least one seat open somewhere. "Are you just going for a walk or taking another tour of the campus?"

"I just want to make sure that I know my way around campus before classes officially start. I can't be late to classes," Rory defended herself. There was a pause on her end before she continued. "Okay now it's loud on your end, where are you?"

"Diner. It's crowded. I may have to hover," Lorelai answered. She sighed, "Man, I sleep with the owner and still don't get a guaranteed seat."

"Mom!"

Lorelai chuckled. "What? We're married. Plus how else am I supposed to provide you with a little baby brother or sister at some point?" She gasped when she spotted an empty stool at the counter. "Ooh there's an open counter seat."

"Counter it," Rory advised.

Despite the hectic atmosphere that came along with the lunch crowd, Luke took the time to point out the no-cell phones sign to Lorelai to which she just smiled at as she slid into the open stool at the counter. He wasn't sure why he even bothered with pointing out the sign anymore since she never paid any attention to its message. Even he sometimes disobeyed his own rule and answered his phone in the diner but it was always during a lull and never while he was serving customers.

"No cell-phones," Luke gruffly reminded his wife as he approached with the coffee pot in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. He swiftly poured her a cup of coffee before sliding the coffee pot back to it's resting place on the counter behind him.

"But it is Rory," Lorelai gave as her explanation. She pulled the phone away from her ear and held it up close to Luke. "Say hey to Rory."

"Hey Rory," Luke spoke into the phone while Lorelai still held it in her hand. "Tell your mom how rude it is to talk on your cell-phone in the diner, maybe she'll listen to you."

Lorelai held the phone back up to her ear and listened to Rory's response before she looked up at Luke, "She says hey and that I should be allowed to have my cell-phone in the diner."

"That's not what I said," Rory chimed in.

"I know. That was just my interpretation of what you said," Lorelai replied. She paused for a moment to sip on her coffee. "People can interpret words in many different ways, you should know that."

"I know that. Luke's scowling at you right now, isn't he?" Rory asked knowingly.

Lorelai watched as her husband moved about the diner taking care of other customers and paying no attention to her on her phone. "Well not at the moment." As if he heard her, Luke turned around at that exact moment with a scowl on his face and once again pointed out the sign. "Okay now he is scowling."

"Fine, I'll be the one to hang up before you get kicked out of the diner."

"Hello, married to the guy, he can't kick me out. If he kicks me out of the diner then I'll just kick him out of bed and I'll make him regret the time he ever kicked me out of the diner. I have my ways."

"Okay, definitely hanging up now."

Lorelai laughed lightly. "Fine, I'll talk to you later babe."

Lorelai heard Rory tell her goodbye and that they would definitely talk later before the phone line clicked off. She slid her phone back into the front pocket of her purse and turned her attention back to her coffee. Just a few seconds after her conversation with Rory ended, Luke dropped by to tell her that he already put in her usual Tuesday order of a cheeseburger with chili-cheese fries. However she found herself feeling just the tiniest bit queasy at the mention of her usual order. Instead she opted for a BLT sandwich with onion rings and a slice of apple pie. Luke didn't question her choices. He figured the moment he made a comment about the vegetables on the sandwich, she would once again change her mind and order something a little less healthy.

Lorelai didn't question why the idea of her usual order made her feel queasy since the queasy feeling seemed to fade away as soon as it began. She just brushed off the feeling and reached into her purse for the catalog that she received just before Rory moved to Yale. It was a catalog full of dorm-room type stuff of which she already ordered from once just for Rory since Luke argued that they didn't need a flowery-purple rug in their bedroom. She flipped through the pages marking a few items down that she thought Rory might like. She didn't flip through the catalog long before Luke brought her lunch over.

* * *

"Tell Cesar whatever he did for this BLT today, it's better than usual," Lorelai said as Luke stopped in front of her to clear the plate away. "And whatever you did for the apple pie, keep doing that because I think it was the best one you ever made."

"I didn't really do anything different this time but thank you "Luke replied. "And I'll pass on your compliment to Cesar. Want anything else?"

Lorelai shook her head, "Nope. I think I'll just hang out here for a while and stare at your pretty face."

"Just don't annoy the other customers."

"I make no promises."

Once Luke walked away from her, Lorelai began to flip through her catalog one more time. Really, she was just waiting to meet up with Sookie so they could head over to the Inn to check in with Tom and his crew. Tom and his crew were at the Inn so they could give her an initial proposal for the work it would take to get the Inn off the ground. Lorelai wasn't sure if he would even be done today but it could never hurt to stop by and try to make him lower the cost through the use of her sparkling personality.

"Oh hey Luke, look at this," Lorelai said, her finger pressed down into the catalog that lay open on the diner counter. "Don't you think this would look great in Rory's dorm room?"

Luke juggled three different plates as he walked by Lorelai, not giving even bothering to glance at the catalog for one second to see what Lorelai's finger was on, "Lorelai, I'm working right now."

Lorelai swiveled on her stool and watched Luke carry the plates in his hands over to the family that sat at a table near the window. "I know you're working. You just fed me. I get that you're working. I just need a minute of your time."

"If you haven't noticed I'm busy at the moment," Luke replied as he rounded the counter again and snatched up the coffee pot. He poured coffee for the customers that sat at the counter. "I don't have a minute right now."

"Okay well not a minute but just like thirty seconds." Lorelai noticed that Luke didn't respond to her claim of thirty seconds but instead he took customer's orders. She perked up when Luke walked by her and headed to give Cesar the orders. "Not even thirty seconds but one little second."

"I'm busy," Luke repeated as he grabbed more plates that Cesar offered up and swiftly delivered them to the tables.

"No, not even a second but a nanosecond," Lorelai called after her husband.

"Still busy."

Lorelai feigned a pout. "Fine." Her eyes scanned around the diner until they landed on Jess who stood by a table of customers scribbling their orders down onto the order pad. "Jess! Come here for a second. I want your opinion on something for Rory."

"He's busy too," Luke informed Lorelai as he passed by her with empty plates in his hand. He shot Jess a look that told him to work and not to bother with Lorelai. "We do have to work. There are customers to feed."

"Work, work, work, what is it with you people?" Lorelai questioned. She made sure to raise her voice enough for Luke to hear in the kitchen where he disappeared. "Work is all that you think about. You know you can take a little break and look at this catalog with me. It won't kill you."

"I can't take a break," Luke replied as he exited the kitchen and began to wipe down the counter where customers just left. "I have to work to make money so we can buy Rory whatever you want to buy her from that catalog. But right now I have customers to that want to order food and I have to serve that food."

"Work, work, work, work," Lorelai muttered under her breath. She picked up her empty cup and waved it in Luke's direction. "I need coffee Lucas."

Luke grabbed the coffee pot once again and refilled Lorelai's cup. "This isn't your ploy to get me to pay attention to you and see whatever you picked out in that catalog is it?"

Lorelai picked up the catalog and held it to her chest, "I wouldn't show you now if you wanted me to show you, even if you begged me. I just need you for coffee, that's all."

Luke stole a glance around the diner. The customers seemed content for the moment. Plus the lunch rush seemed to be dying down. At this point, he had no new customers, just ones enjoying their food or waiting on their food. He decided that for now it wouldn't hurt his business to spend just a few minutes talking with his wife. He leaned down onto his elbows on the counter right in front of Lorelai.

"Coffee is all you need me for?" Luke asked, he kept his voice low. A grin that bordered on the line between smug and cocky fit his features. "That's not what I seem to remember you saying this morning."

The look that Luke was giving her and the memories of their early morning activities that started with her sneaking up on him in the shower and ended up with them back in bed where they proved the shower to be a total waste of water, caused a light pink blush to spread across her face.

"Okay well maybe I do need you for more than just coffee. Mornings like this morning are the reason that I love your early morning deliveries," Lorelai smiled and leaned in closer to Luke, "Well except for the fact where you leave me alone and naked in bed."

"I'll make it up to you tonight," Luke promised.

Lorelai let out a sigh. "It's too bad you don't have the apartment anymore because then we could just sneak upstairs for a little afternoon delight."

"I have customers now."

"Yeah and I'm certain that Jess wouldn't like us using his apartment for our little adventures anyways," Lorelai replied. She noted the time on the clock that hung on the wall just over Luke's shoulder. "Besides it is time for me to go meet Sookie and head over to the Inn. I'm going to see if I can get Tom to possibly lower of the cost of all the work that needs to be done."

"How do you intend to do that?" Luke asked while Lorelai began to gather her things.

"Oh you know, the usual; twirl my hair, bat my lashes, flirty banter," Lorelai listed off. "See if I can charm him enough so that we don't go bankrupt trying to open the Inn." She smiled at Luke, "But don't worry, I won't flirt too much and leave him for you."

"Do whatever you need to do."

"Well that leaves things wide open." Lorelai leaned across the counter and puckered her lips slightly. "Now kiss."

Luke did as requested and leaned over the counter to give his wife a kiss. He surprised Lorelai when he switched it up from the usual quick peck on the lips to a slower more lingering type of kiss. When she raised her eyebrows in question of the kiss, he just informed her that he had to make up for the fact that he didn't greet her with a kiss since she was chatting away on her cellphone. She gave him another kiss before she breezed through the diner, out the door, and headed in the direction of the Inn.

* * *

"Honey, I'm home," Lorelai called out in a sing-song voice when she entered the house.

"Kitchen," came Luke's reply.

Lorelai dropped her purse and keys on the small table in the entryway and kicked off her heels by the front door before she headed in the direction. Delicious smells wafted her way and greeted as she entered the kitchen. She shuffled across the kitchen floor, greeted her husband with a kiss then hopped up on the counter beside where Luke was standing.

"How did your meeting with Tom go?" Luke asked. He shifted his workspace around a little since Lorelai decided to sit on the counter and take up the room he was using to prepare dinner.

Lorelai groaned and a small frown appeared on her face. "Well he's not finished yet, not completely, but he says it might be more then we originally planned for."

"How much more?"

Lorelai gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, "Don't know right now. He still has a few things to check out. He said he should be able to tell us soon." She picked up a small piece of carrot that Luke chopped up. "I'm just ready to be able to break ground on the Inn so I can do something else besides paperwork."

"You will still have plenty of paperwork even when you do break ground on the Inn," Luke pointed out.

"Well I know that," Lorelai replied. "But at least at that point Sookie and I will be doing more than just paperwork. We will be be able to do more things like meeting with designers to figure out what we want our inn to look like. Then it will finally seem like we're really doing this, like we're finally achieving this dream."

"You and Sookie will be able to start work on the Inn soon, I'm sure of that," Luke assured her. He stopped his chopping of vegetables for a minute and moved to stand in front of her. "And the Inn will be everything that you dreamed of for an inn."

"So once Sookie and I are able to open the Inn, I will be able to have Bono stay their as a guest because it will be the greatest Inn on the East Coast that all the cool people want to hang out at?" Lorelai asked, her smile seemed to say that this was indeed an actual dream she had before in reference to the Inn.

Luke nodded his head, "I'm sure that's exactly where he'll stay if he is ever in Stars Hollow or just anywhere in Connecticut because he will definitely travel to your Inn after hearing news about it."

"Definitely," Lorelai agreed with a small nod of her head. "The Dragonfly will be his new hangout spot and then I can stalk him all I want."

"I'm sure it will be."

Lorelai chuckled as she leaned forward and planted a kiss on Luke's lips. "Thank you for believing in my dreams, even if they do involve rock stars hanging out in my Inn that isn't even opened yet."

"It is one of the duties of being married to you."

Lorelai beamed. "Exactly! And another one of those duties is cooking dinner so I don't starve. Speaking of which, how much longer until it will be ready? I'm starving. I haven't eaten anything since lunch today."

Luke moved away from Lorelai and began his preparation of dinner again. "Probably about another hour."

"Perfect time for a snack then," Lorelai announced as she hopped off the counter and began moving around the kitchen in search of a snack. After opening and closing a few cabinets and not finding anything that excited her taste buds for the moment, she spotted the bowl of apples that sat on the counter. She plucked an apple from the top of the pile and began to munch happily on the juicy fruit.

"An apple?" Luke questioned when he noticed the fruit in her hand. "Did you even notice that I bought you Mallomars and pop-tarts when I went by the store today? I almost didn't buy them but I knew that you would want them. I went against my better judgment to keep you happy."

"I noticed them," Lorelai answered. "And thanks for buying them by the way because we were running low. This just spoke to me louder than those did. I blame you for this. I think your eating habits are starting to rub off on me."

"Well I can't complain about that, you need a little more fruit than the little bit you get in desserts and muffins if you're going to live past the age of 45," Luke replied.

Lorelai waved the apple in her hand, "Yes, this is all your influence. This is your wicked way to get me to live longer."

"Guilty as charged."

Lorelai smiled at his response before she seated herself on of the few stools in their kitchen while she enjoyed her choice in snack before dinner-time as well as enjoyed the fine sight that was Luke preparing them dinner.

* * *

 **So did I drop enough apple hints so you can see where we're going with this story now? There are certain aspects of the next chapter that won't allow Lorelai to stay in the dark about her apple consumption in this chapter.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites. Hope you enjoy this latest installment.**

* * *

Lorelai closed her eyes and her hands gripped the bathroom counter tightly as she leaned into it and tried to fight the wave of nausea swept over her. She had just entered the bathroom to take a shower before she would head out for the day when the nauseated feeling began to creep over her. She had noticed over the past week that she would have random bouts of queasiness but they usually passed within a few seconds. This, however, seemed to be the exception to the rule since it did not seem to be going away as she tried to relax.

This time was proved to be different than her queasy times when her stomach lurched once violently and sent her fumbling towards the toilet where she made it just in time to throw up. Tears pricked at her eyes and small beads of a cold sweat formed on her forehead as her stomach started to empty itself. She knew that Luke probably heard her and that it would only be a matter of seconds before he came in the bathroom to see if she was okay.

When she was convinced that she had nothing left to offer, Lorelai flushed the toilet, pulled herself up on shaky legs and walked back over to the sink. She turned on the water and splashed it onto her face, letting the cool water wash away the sweat that formed on her face. After she patted her face dry with a towel, she cupped some water in her hand and used it to rinse out her mouth. Just a few seconds later, a few sharp raps could be heard on the bathroom door. As predicted, the next thing she heard was Luke's voice.

"Lorelai?"

With her stomach still in knots, Lorelai moved to sit down on the ledge of the bathtub. Just as she was about to reply to Luke and tell him that he could come in, he pushed open the bathroom door and made his way over to her. She tried to give him a small smile as he approached and knelt down in front of her.

Luke rested one of his hands on her thigh while his other hand reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I don't feel so hot," Lorelai admitted with a heavy sigh. She didn't want to admit that she may be sick. She had plans for today that did not lend to her being sick. "I feel gross and just a little off."

Luke could feel her leg trembling in just the slightest way beneath his hand. He started to rub his hand up and down her leg to try and calm her down. "Yeah, you don't look like you feel so great."

Lorelai gave a snort of laughter. "Well, geez, take me now, sailor."

The beginning of a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips from her comment. It was just like her to make jokes even when she wasn't feeling well. "Do you need me to get you anything?"

Lorelai shook her head, "No, I'm fine." The thought of trying to drink or even eat anything made her stomach churn in the most unpleasant way. "I think I'm just going to take a shower."

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Luke inquired. "A glass of water or maybe some ginger-ale?" he listed off suggestions as they came to him. "Something that will settle your stomach at least. I don't think we have anything for that here but I can go to Doose's and get you something. Whatever you may want."

"Luke, honey, I'm fine, I don't want anything right now," Lorelai replied. She braced her hands on the ledge of the bathtub and pushed up. Luke automatically stood up with her. When a little spell of dizziness came over her, she latched onto Luke's shoulders to steady herself.

Luke wrapped his arm around her waist. "Lorelai," he said, his voice full of concern.

Lorelai lifted her head to meet his eyes as she released her tight hold on his shoulders. "I'm okay, I'm okay," she insisted. "I just got a little dizzy. I'm okay now, I probably just stood up too fast."

Luke tilted his head slightly to the side, "Are you sure? I think you just need to go lay down and rest."

Lorelai shook her head and managed to put on a soft smile to try and reassure him that she really was fine. "I'm okay babe. Honestly, I was a little dizzy but I'm fine. I think that what I really need right now is to take a shower. You can go ahead and go to work, I'll be okay."

"No, I'm going to stay home with you," Luke replied quickly. "You're sick, you need your rest, I'm going to stay home and take care of you. I'll go call Cesar and tell him that I am taking the day off. He and Jess can handle the diner for one day."

"First of all, I'm not sick," Lorelai pointedly informed him. "I'm just sickish or a tiny bit sickly but I am definitely not sick. There is a difference. And second of all, you are not going to stay home today. You are going to work. Besides, I'm not staying home so it won't make sense if you do. Just go to work babe."

"You really need to stay home today if you're...sickish," Luke substituted when he noticed the look on Lorelai's face. "You can take the day off, it will be fine. You need the rest."

"No, Luke, I can't take the day off," Lorelai argued. "I have that meeting with my father so Sookie and I can get the insurance reinstated for the Inn. I can't put that off, it needs to be done so Tom and his crew can officially start work. Plus I promised Rory that I would come visit and bring the stuff I ordered for her."

"Your father will understand if you have to reschedule the meeting and you can always take Rory's stuff to her another day," Luke retorted. "You really should rest."

Lorelai brought one hand up to her face and rubbed at her temples. "Let's not argue about this Luke. I need to do this stuff today. I can't cancel. I'm going to work. That's the bottom line."

"Lorelai."

Lorelai paused for a minute. She knew that they could go back and forth on this issue all day. "How about a compromise?" she asked. When Luke raised his eyebrows in question, she continued on. "You go to work and I will also go do what I have to do today. But I promise that if I start feeling worse that I will come home and rest."

Luke sighed heavily. He figured that this was as close to getting Lorelai to admit that she was sick and needed rest as he was going to get. "Fine. That can be our compromise. But I am going to go to the store and get you some ginger-ale for your stomach."

Lorelai couldn't help but smile as Luke almost worded that last part as a threat. A friendly threat. "Deal. Can I shower now? I feel gross."

"You can shower now," Luke conceded. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "But call me if you start feeling worse. I'll come home to take care of you."

"I promise I will hon," Lorelai replied. She made a shooing gesture with her hands, "Now you go and let me get to showering."

Luke pressed his lips to her forehead once more. "Okay, I'll go now but call me if you need anything. I mean anything."

"I know, I know." Lorelai stuck her head out the bathroom door as soon as Luke exited. "Remember to make something for Rory's care package I'm taking to her today."

"I'll bring it by the house," Luke called back.

With Luke now gone from the bathroom, Lorelai turned back to her original plan of taking a shower before the nausea overcame her. She fiddled around with the shower knobs and hoped that the queasy feeling that still felt like a pit in her stomach would go away soon so she could focus on what she needed to today. Once the temperature of the water was to her liking, Lorelai stripped off her clothes and climbed beneath the steady stream of water. As she stood beneath the shower spray and let it wash away the grossness that always accompanied nausea and vomiting, she went through her mental checklist of her tasks for the day, all the while hoping that the shower would help her to feel better.

* * *

Later that morning, Lorelai walked alongside Sookie as they both followed behind her father and a business associate named Phillip as they explored the grounds of the Inn all in the name of insurance. Lorelai had mentioned at the last Friday Night Dinner that she was meeting up with a man about getting her insurance policy reinstated on the Inn only to have her father insist that he also needed to take a look at the Inn and the insurance policy she was currently dealing with to make sure that she wasn't swindled out of a good deal. As much as she wanted to do this all for herself and not really involve her family in her dream to start her own Inn with Sookie, she had to admit that saving money was always a good idea. If saving money meant involving her father then she would definitely involve him.

"Tell me again why we're meeting with your father," Sookie said as she turned her head to look at Lorelai. "We already met with insurance people."

"Well my father thinks that he can save us some money on our insurance policy, I couldn't really say no to that," Lorelai replied. "We need to save all the money we can right now especially since you have a little one on the way."

Sookie nodded her head once, "Okay." Still slightly confused, she crinkled up her nose. "But I thought you said he dealt with international insurance clients."

"He does," Lorelai confirmed.

"Then why is he meeting with us? We're not international clients, if anything we're national clients," Sookie chose to end her sentence even though she wasn't quite sure what she meant.

Lorelai laughed lightly, "No we're not international. But I am his daughter and you are his daughter's best friend so he said that he could make an exception for a small account such as ourselves. We're not international but we do have connections in the insurance biz."

"Ooh connections, I like having connections," Sookie said giddily.

"Well you do already have plenty of connections with a certain produce supplier in town," Lorelai replied, a teasing smile on her face.

Sookie giggled, "Dirty!"

Their schoolgirl giggling halted when Richard started to walk towards them while his business associate bounded up the porch steps and disappeared into the Dragonfly Inn. Lorelai crossed her arms over her chest as her father approached.

"So what's the verdict Gilmore?" Lorelai asked. "Think you can get us a better policy?"

"I can get you a much better policy," Richard said confidently. "Whoever you talked with recently is a criminal mastermind with the policy that were trying to give you."

"And you're absolutely sure that you can get us a better policy?" Lorelai asked.

Richard nodded, "I'm confident that I can. Phillip is going to go over the property once again but I can put together a new policy for you tomorrow or maybe even this afternoon. Then you're free to start your work on the Inn."

Lorelai grinned brightly, "Thank you Daddy. You are a lifesaver."

Richard smiled back at his daughter. "I do what I can for you."

"Yes, thank you Richard!" Sookie squealed as she hugged him as best as she could with her pregnant belly in the way.

Lorelai tried not to laugh at the look on her father's face at the sudden hug from Sookie. "She's pregnant so she get a little emotional and touchy-feely," she explained.

"Well congratulations on your pregnancy," Richard addressed Sookie as she let him go.

Sookie smiled, "Thank you."

"So Dad, I was thinking about going to get some lunch, would you like to go with me?" Lorelai asked. "We could head over to the diner. I can see if I can get you to eat a hamburger. Imagine what Mom would say."

"Thank you for the offer Lorelai but I'm afraid that I have to head back to the office, I have a lot of work that needs to get done today," Richard declined the offer. "However I will take a rain-check for lunch another day."

"Rain-check, noted," Lorelai nodded her head.

"I will get that policy together as soon as I can for you," Richard promised. "I'll give you a call when I'm finished. Nice to see you again Sookie. Lorelai, I will see you on Friday for dinner."

Lorelai watched on as her father walked away and back towards the Inn where he talked with Phillip for just a few minutes before they headed off to their respective cars and drove away. Once her father's car was out of sight, Lorelai turned to Sookie.

"What about you? Do you want to grab some lunch with me?" Lorelai asked her friend.

"Sorry but I can't go to lunch with you either," Sookie replied reluctantly. She moved one of her hands to her pregnant belly, "Jackson and I have an appointment to check on little baby here. I have to meet him soon. We're going to lunch after the appointment."

"Hmm well another day then," Lorelai mused. "I'm not even that hungry but I should probably go by the diner before I go see Rory so Luke can see that I am alright despite how I was feeling this morning."

"What was wrong with you this morning?" Sookie asked.

"I was really nauseous this morning and then I threw up once. I figured it was just a bug or something since this past week I've felt really off like a little queasy sort of feeling," Lorelai explained. "Luke was worried and wanted me to stay home especially when I had a little dizzy spell. But I feel a little better now, still a tiny bit nauseous but drinking ginger-ale helped."

"Maybe it is just a bug," Sookie commented. She rubbed her hand thoughtfully across her baby bump. "Huh."

"What was that 'huh' for?" Lorelai questioned.

"Well I was just thinking that the last time I felt like that was right before I found out I was..."

Lorelai's mind seemed to jump on the same track as Sookie's as the puzzle pieces started to come together to reveal the bigger picture here. The apple. Correction the few apples that she consumed in this past week along with the apple juice that she insisted on buying from Doose's even though Luke was sure she wasn't going to drink it. That combined with the sickness from this morning, absence of a certain monthly visitor, and the weird feeling she battled this past week only ever happened one other time in her life.

"Oh my god," Lorelai exhaled. Her eyes met Sookie's, whose eyes were twinkling with excitement, "Oh my god," she said just a bit louder.

"You're pregnant!" Sookie squealed.

Lorelai had a bright grin on her face as she nodded her head, "That would certainly explain the apples and the weird feeling lately especially this morning."

"Well you have to find out for sure!" Sookie paused for a minute. "I got it! We can go to Doose's and get a pregnancy test then go back to my house so I can be there when you take the test," she said excitedly.

"Okay wait, I am not buying a pregnancy test at Doose's," Lorelai interrupted. "I do not need the entire town knowing about this before I have a chance to find out for myself and tell Luke. Plus you have a doctor's appointment soon."

"Oh right," Sookie sighed. "Oh I know," she exclaimed as another idea popped in her head. "You can go to the doctor with me. Doctors can tell you if you're pregnant!"

Lorelai laughed. "Sookie, I can't do that. It's your doctor's appointment not mine. I think a store-bought test will be fine for now. Also your husband is a big gossip, I can't explain to him why I'm with you at the doctor."

"Yeah that makes a lot of sense," Sookie commented, a slight pout beginning to form on her face.

"Look I'll buy a test on my way to go visit Rory at Yale and then when it's confirmed with what we already know to be true, I'll call you and tell you the news," Lorelai replied. Even though she was quite certain that she was pregnant since the evidence seemed to weigh heavily in that direction, she still wanted to have the confirmation of a pregnancy test. "Sound good?"

"Sounds great!" Sookie squealed. She stepped forward and wrapped her best friend in a tight hug which Lorelai quickly reciprocated. "You're pregnant!"

"I'm pregnant," Lorelai squealed alongside her best friend.

Sookie pulled back from the hug, "You call me the minute you find out for sure! And when you tell Luke, I want to see if he freaks out like Jackson did."

"I don't know if he'll freak out but I will call you," Lorelai promised. "I want to plan a special way to tell Luke though, instead of just telling him flat out."

"You could always do what I did when I told Jackson. I planned and cooked a special meal for him. You could do that," Sookie suggested.

"Me? Cook?" Lorelai asked incredulously. "I want to surprise Luke, not kill him. Luke being dead will do me no favors right now."

"Right...well you'll think of something," Sookie assured her. Her cellphone rang and distracted her. She pulled the phone from her purse glanced down at the id as Jackson's name pop up. "It's Jackson. I'm supposed to meet him now."

"Go, go Sookie," Lorelai encouraged her. She smiled, "I have to go share some good news with a daughter of mine."

"Remember to call me," Sookie ordered as she walked away.

"I'll remember."

* * *

With the revelation that she might be pregnant, Lorelai completely forgot about stopping by the diner to show Luke that she was feeling better. Instead, as soon as Sookie left Lorelai hopped in her car and immediately started to drive towards New Haven. Before she reached the Yale campus, Lorelai stopped off at a small pharmacy and purchased three different brands of pregnancy tests just to be on the safe side. She dropped the pharmacy bag into the box of goodies that Sookie prepared for Rory as part of a care package.

Lorelai juggled the brown box that was Rory's care package and a rolled up rug in her arms as she arrived at Rory's dorm suite. After a few minutes of moving around the items that she held, Lorelai managed to free one of her hands and knock on the door. It only took a few seconds before Rory appeared and helped her mother carry everything into her dorm room.

"So what do you think?" Lorelai asked as she spread out a flowered purple rug that she ordered with Rory in mind. "Think it has that cool college dorm-room vibe?"

"Very young and fabulous," Rory agreed. "Let me guess, Luke said it didn't really go with your room?"

"You are correct," Lorelai acknowledged. "There's also a matching bean bag chair, it arrives next week."

Rory grinned, "I love it when you miss me." She moved towards the brown box that her mother had set down on her bed when she entered the dorm room. "What's all this?"

"Well that's a care package for my dear daughter. Sookie sent marshmallow cookies, Luke sent muffins, and I got you a copy of the Stars Hollow Gazette. I asked Jess if he wanted to send anything but he said he would just come see you for himself," Lorelai replied.

Rory nodded and dug through the care package as her mother spoke. When her hands crinkled a small plastic bag, she opened it. Her eyes widened as she pulled out a rectangular box. "Uh Mom, what's this? I really hope this isn't part of my care package. I don't have a use for one of these."

"And you better not for a long, long while babe. There is a reason that I made you a 'going off to college' care package that included condoms. I know you and Jess haven't yet but after our talk over the summer, I'm making sure you're prepared," Lorelai informed her daughter. "You can't always count on the guy."

"I know," Rory replied in a slightly embarrassed tone. Her eyes cast over to her dresser where the box of condoms was stashed beneath her clothes. She met her mother's eyes once more and waved the pregnancy test box around, "Since there is no one else, I guess this is for you?"

"Those along with the others in the bag," Lorelai confirmed. A smile spread across her face. "I think I might be pregnant."

"Really?"

Lorelai nodded her head eagerly. "With all the evidence, I am pretty sure that I am pregnant. I just bought the test so I can confirm it."

"Oh Mom this is go great!" Rory replied with a grin on her face that matched her mother's. "But shouldn't you take the test with Luke since he is your husband?"

"Maybe," Lorelai said but quickly dismissed the idea. "I figured I would take it here with my one and only daughter present. Plus between here and Stars Hollow, I can throw the trash away so there won't be any evidence of the tests for any one in Stars Hollow to get their hands on and spread the news around."

"Makes sense," Rory agreed. "People in that town have been known to go through trash if they were suspicious of something."

"Exactly. So can I take the tests here or will your other roommates try to kick your mommy out of the dorm room?" Lorelai asked as she grabbed the rest of the pregnancy tests from the pharmacy bag.

"Considering I'm the only one here right now besides Tanna who hasn't came out of her room, I say go ahead," Rory replied. "The bathroom is all yours."

"Be right back. Get a timer!"

Rory grabbed her cell-phone from her desk since it was the only thing in her room that she could use as a timer. She grabbed the cookies that Sookie sent and sat down on the edge of her bed as she waited for mother to come back from the bathroom. She was glad that her other roommates were currently out of the room because she could imagine it a little awkward trying to explain to them that her mother was currently in the bathroom with pregnancy tests.

"Have a timer?" Lorelai asked as she walked back into the room with pregnancy tests in one hand and the smashed boxes that the tests were in in her other hand. Rory nodded. "Okay set it for three minutes," she said as she laid out the pregnancy tests on the dresser.

"Three minutes, got it." Rory set the timer on her phone. She turned to her mother, "Now we wait."

"Now we wait." Lorelai stuffed the empty boxes into her purse and told herself to throw them away later. She moved to sit on the bed next to Rory. "How much time has passed?"

Rory laughed. "Like thirty seconds Mom."

Lorelai groaned. "This is going to be the longest three minutes of my life."

A comfortable silence fell between the two Gilmore girls as the seconds slowly and quietly ticked off the timer. To Lorelai it seemed like the time was passing by slower than usual while she waited for the three tests to either confirm or deny her pregnancy. She was almost one-hundred percent sure they would confirm it, she just wanted to be able to have actual confirmation instead of just her feeling. She was giddy with the news especially since she and Luke had been trying to start a family ever since their honeymoon. Now it seemed as if that was coming true.

The timer dinged announcing that the three minutes were now up.

"Time's up," Rory announced. "Let's see if I am going to have a baby brother or sister soon."

Lorelai nodded in acknowledgment before she pushed up from the bed and walked over to the dresser. With her back to Rory, Lorelai took her time picking up each and every individual test to check the results. All the clear windows on the tests confirmed what she and Sookie already thought.

"Well?" Rory asked. "What does it say?"

With a bright smile on her face, Lorelai turned to face her daughter. "The results are in and in about nine months you will have a baby brother or a sister. I'm pregnant!"

"You're pregnant!" Rory exclaimed. She shot up from the bed and hugged her mother tightly. "Oh wow, this is great. You and Luke are going to have a baby."

Lorelai couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. "I'm pregnant," she repeated. "I'm going to have a baby. Another little you," she addressed her daughter.

"Hey, I'm one of a kind," Rory retorted. "But I'm sure this kid will be great too."

Lorelai let out a small giggle. "You definitely are one of a kind."

"So now that you know, how are you going to tell Luke?" Rory asked.

Lorelai gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know. I want a special way to tell him that he is going to be a daddy. I have a few ideas rattling around in my brain. I have to decide on one."

"Whatever you think of, I'm sure it will be great," Rory replied. "I'm so happy for you."

Lorelai smiled and hugged her daughter once more, "Me too, kid, me too."

* * *

 **I know Luke didn't find out in this chapter but he will find out in the next chapter! When I began this story, I already had the way Lorelai will tell Luke in mind. I think it deserves it's own little chapter.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows! I really do appreciate it.**

* * *

"Sookie thank you for doing this for me, I really appreciate it," Lorelai commented as she entered the kitchen. She sidestepped by her friend and swiped a small chunk of chocolate from the glass bowl on the counter. Then she leaned back against the counter and began to munch on her chocolate happily.

"Of course, you know I'm happy to do this for you Lorelai," Sookie smiled. She plucked a few pieces of chocolate from the bowl and dropped them one-by-one into a pot on the stove-top to melt. She slapped Lorelai's hand away when she noticed her friend reaching for another piece of chocolate. "If you want me to be able to finish the dessert, leave the chocolate alone. I need it for the cheesecake."

Lorelai held her hands up to surrender and began to back away. "Sorry, I'll step back and let you work."

So she did step back to give Sookie space to work her magic but not before swiping a couple more pieces of chocolate when Sookie's back was turned to her. She nibbled on the chocolate while she moved around the kitchen, sneaking peeks at the meal that Sookie was preparing for her and Luke tonight. Lorelai couldn't remember the name that Sookie gave to her latest creation but she was promised that is was something that both she and Luke would enjoy. All she knew was that it contained chicken, rice, a mixture of veggies all in some kind of sauce, and the smell didn't make her the least bit nauseous, which delighted her since she knew from first hand experience just how sensitive to smells pregnancy could make a person.

Just a day had passed since she discovered she was pregnant. She was torn between wanting to just break out and tell Luke the news that they were going to have a baby and actually going through with her plan. Her plan being to plan a romantic evening for them at home, consisting of giving Luke the night off from cooking and her preparing the meal during which she would break the news to him. But since she couldn't cook to save her life, she enlisted the help of Sookie who was more than happy to help her with the preparation of the meal.

"I'm almost done here. I just have to put the finishing touches on the cheesecake and everything will be ready," Sookie announced. She took the pot of melted chocolate off the stove, dipped a spoon into it, and then expertly drizzled a pattern of chocolate down on top of the cheesecake.

"Well it all smells great Sookie," Lorelai replied as she walked up to stand beside her friend. She lifted the top up of the pot that held Sookie's latest creation for dinner. "And it all looks amazing. I know I already said it but thank you again for doing this for me. I know you're already busy planning for the birthday party we're catering, so taking your own time to do this for me is just beyond the call of duty."

"It's nice to be able to cook for someone else again and not just for me and Jackson. Without being able to cook at the Inn, I have only been planning dinners for the two of us and it's not the same," Sookie informed Lorelai. She turned towards her with a smile on her face, "Plus I'm just so happy for you to share this news with him," she gushed.

"Me too," Lorelai replied giddily. "It's been hard enough to not tell him since I found out but I did manage to hold it in until tonight where it can be special."

"And he doesn't suspect anything yet?" Sookie asked.

Lorelai shook her head. "I've managed to hide any symptoms from him so he doesn't ask any questions about why I've been sick. He's still clueless at this point."

"That's good," Sookie acknowledged. "Hopefully he doesn't freak out and hide himself away for the night with a calculator like Jackson did."

"Okay, I don't need that kind of thinking. I need good vibes here Sookie. And Jackson freaked out about space in the house, we have room here. I already have the room for the nursery picked out," Lorelai replied.

Sookie gave her thumbs up. "Only good vibes here."

Lorelai clasped her hands together, "Okay so what do I need to do here for my part in preparation of the meal?"

"First put the cheesecake in the refrigerator," Sookie instructed.

Lorelai did as told and deposited the cheesecake into the refrigerator. She turned back to Sookie, "That was easy enough, what's next?"

Sookie grabbed a wooden spoon and pointed it at the pot on the stove. "And for this it's simple really."

"Remember my total lack of culinary knowledge before you continue," Lorelai interjected.

"It's still simple," Sookie eased her friend's mind. "In a few minutes, you need to turn the heat down to low to keep it warm until Luke gets home and also just stir it every so often. You can't screw it up."

"Let's hope that's true." Lorelai glanced up at the clock in the kitchen and noted the time. She knew that Luke would be home soon since he wasn't working the dinner rush tonight. "Now I just have enough time to get ready before Luke comes home."

After thanking Sookie for doing this for her once again, Lorelai walked her best friend to the door and watched as she leave. She popped back into the kitchen just long enough to do as Sookie instructed and give the food in the pot a quick stir. Happy that everything was going so well so far, Lorelai left the kitchen and headed upstairs to change her clothes.

On the way to her bedroom, Lorelai stopped in the doorway of the room that she and Luke both deemed good enough for a nursery when they first looked at the house. The room was close enough to their own room and spacious enough for all the furniture and belongings that a baby would need. The room still needed to be painted something other than the off-white color it currently was and Lorelai already had plenty ideas for the color scheme of the room.

Lorelai smiled into the currently empty room before she pushed away from the door frame and headed to her bedroom. In her bedroom, she grabbed the dress from the closet that she planned to wear tonight and laid it across the bed. It was a new purchase and she figured she would wear it while she still had the figure to fill it out since in a few months it would be useless to her with her growing size. After picking out a pair of heels to match her dress, Lorelai headed into the bathroom.

She freshened up in the bathroom, taking the time to reapply some of her makeup and re-curl a few strands of hair, before she headed downstairs to follow Sookie's instructions about stirring the food once more. As she re-entered her bedroom, she quickly changed from her jeans and t-shirt to the red dress that laid across her bed. Just as she was about to slip on her shoes, she was distracted by the phone ringing.

Lorelai sat down on the edge of the bed as she chatted with Rory on phone. She listened and threw in a few witty comments as her daughter informed her of the goings-on in her life since they last chatted. She listened to Rory talk about her roommates and something about a party happening soon that Paris was bugging her about but she couldn't focus too much on the story because she was trying to detect the unusual smell that wafted into her room. She sniffed the air and tried to figure out where the smell was coming from.

"Oh no!" Lorelai gasped as she rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen while still holding the phone up to her ear. In the kitchen, the odor was stronger and more pungent and she just knew that something was burning. She hurried over to the stove.

"Mom? Is everything okay?" Rory asked, the panic evident in her voice.

"It's fine, just fine," Lorelai grumbled as she moved the pot to a cold burner on the stove. She lifted the top and frowned at the contents that looked everything but appetizing at this point. She tried to stir the mixture only to uncover all the burnt pieces of chicken and veggies from the bottom of the pot. The sauce that once brought everything together was now a bubbly mess that all smelled terrible. She quickly replaced the top and stepped back from the stove when a wave of nausea threatened her.

Lorelai glared at the temperature setting that she forgot she should have moved to low like Sookie said. She cursed under her breath and switched the dial off. "Everything's fine, I just found out that I can't even cook."

"Mom, you knew that," Rory pointed out. "I knew that, everyone knew that."

"Well I'm not even capable of following a few simple instructions to make sure I don't burn the dinner that Sookie spent time preparing," Lorelai replied. She glared at the pot of burnt food on the stove. "All I was supposed to do was turn the dial to low but I got distracted and now I ruined dinner."

"Oh Mom, I'm sure it's not that bad," Rory sympathized.

Lorelai sighed, "It's definitely that bad. I have to try and figure out a way to salvage my plans for tonight before Luke gets home, talk to you later?"

"Talk to you later," Rory parroted.

Lorelai clicked off the phone and dropped it down on the kitchen counter. A frown appeared on her face as she tried to think of ways to salvage their dinner. It's not like she could just pick out a few ingredients and just whip something up like Sookie could. Her only culinary skill was being able to add some pizazz to a frozen pizza but Luke didn't eat frozen pizza so that wasn't an option. Apparently those skills didn't extend into watching carefully over a pot to make sure that nothing burnt.

She blinked when she felt the stinging prick of tears building up behind her eyes. She wiped at the tears that now fell down her face and cursed the pregnancy hormones that she knew brought them on since she would normally never cry over something like this. She pouted and slumped down onto a stool on the kitchen as more tears started to pour down her face.

That's where Luke found her when he arrived home just a few minutes later. He smelt the burnt and acrid odor as soon as he walked through the front door. He immediately rushed to the kitchen worried about the well-being of his wife. That's when he saw her sitting at the island in the kitchen with her face buried in her hands, her body wracked with sobs. He checked the dials on the oven and made sure they were turned off before he moved to stand beside his wife.

"What happened?" Luke asked, he rubbed his hand across her back to try and soothe her.

Lorelai sniffled and looked up at her husband. "I ruined the dinner that Sookie prepared just for us. She took time out of her schedule and cooked us dinner but I just had to ruin it. God, I can't even be trusted long enough in the kitchen to watch a stupid pot so the food doesn't burn."

Luke's brow wrinkled as he looked back at the pot on the stove then back at his still upset wife. "Uh why was Sookie cooking us dinner? I was planning on cooking when I got home."

"I just wanted to do something special," Lorelai yelled, frustrated that she was still crying even though she tried to calm herself down. "I wanted to do something special for you but as it turns out I'm not capable of doing anything remotely culinary. I got distracted by talking to Rory on the phone and I let our dinner burn."

Luke pulled Lorelai up to him and wrapped his arm around her waist as he pulled her close to him. He rubbed a hand over her back as she sobbed onto his shoulder, soaking his flannel shirt with tears. He couldn't understand why she was so upset over ruining their dinner since she never let little things like that affect her in this way. He wasn't even sure why she wanted a special dinner since it wasn't their anniversary or anything. Although knowing Lorelai she could have made up her own holiday that she wanted to celebrate.

After a few minutes the tears subsided and Lorelai pulled back from Luke, wiping at the tears that stained her face. She sniffled and looked up into his eyes. "I'm sorry for ruining our dinner. I wanted tonight to be special."

Luke hated to ask the question but new it had to be asked. "Am I missing something here? Why tonight? Why did you want to do something special tonight? If you would have let me know, we could have went out somewhere."

Lorelai huffed. "I wasn't aware it was a crime to want to do something special for your husband once in a while."

"It's not a crime but you don't have to do this kind of stuff for me," Luke said, his arm making a sweeping gesture towards the stove. "You don't have to get Sookie to cook a meal for us. I don't mind cooking, I like it." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I appreciate you wanting to do something for me but you don't have to, I'm happy just to come home early and spend time with you."

"But tonight is special," Lorelai barreled on. "Well at least I wanted tonight to be special."

"Why? What's so special about tonight?" Luke asked, still confused over what tonight could possibly be. "Why does tonight have to be special?"

"Because I was going to tell you that I'm pregnant!" Lorelai blurted out. She gasped and threw a hand over her mouth when she realized she blurted out the news she wanted to tell him tonight. "Damn it," she cursed. "That's not how I wanted to tell you."

Lorelai stepped to the side as Luke moved to sit down on the stool that she previously sat on. She watched him carefully, trying to read the expression on his face as he processed the news. They both agreed to start trying for kids right after the wedding so she knew that he definitely wanted kids. He told her that a few times. Still the news would come a shock to anyone so she tried to wait patiently for him to say something but she proved to herself that she was not a patient person.

"Luke? Honey? I need you to say something here," Lorelai said. "I know you process slowly and need time to think about things but I need some words here. Say anything. Good, bad, monkey, monkey, underpants. I just need you to say something." She shook her head, "Never mind, I changed my mind, it can't be bad, not that I think it would be. I just need words."

Luke looked up at Lorelai who was watching him with questioning eyes. He definitely wanted kids with Lorelai, they had the kid discussion a couple of times already. They had already planned which room in the house would be the nursery. Still the news that she was actually pregnant and the start of their own family was happening still came as a shock. A small but good shock, the kind that caused a warm surge in his heart but still left him speechless for a few minutes.

"Pregnant?" Luke finally asked. His eyes scanned over her still slim figure, no obvious signs of pregnancy yet. But he knew that would change in the coming months as her body would grow and change to support the life of their baby. A smile formed on his face when she nodded and confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. "We're having a baby."

Lorelai grinned and nodded her head, "We're having a baby," she repeated. She stepped closer to him and draped her arms around his shoulders. A teasing smile played across her face, "Or should I say jam hands?"

Luke gripped her waist as he stood up. He bent down and captured her lips with his, kissing her softly at first then slowly deepening the kiss, much to her approval. She pressed her body tighter against his as she melted into the kiss, trying to give him back just as good as he was giving her. She sighed in disappointment when he pulled his mouth away from hers. Luke moved his arm from around her waist and his fingers stroked lightly across her belly.

Lorelai giggled, "I'll take that to mean that you're just as happy about this as I am?"

Luke smiled and he was sure it matched the smile on Lorelai's face, maybe not as beautiful but just as meaningful. "I'm very happy about this."

"Good because you had me freaked out for a minute there when you weren't speaking," Lorelai replied. "Thought you might be rethinking the jam hands for a minute there."

Luke shook his head. "I would never do that. You know that I want kids with you." He brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "When did you find out?"

"That day I was sick and you tried to convince me to stay home. Turns out it was all morning sickness, I had a feeling when Sookie and I were talking that day so on my way to visit Rory, I stopped by the pharmacy and bought a couple of tests. They all said the same thing, that there is a bun in the oven," Lorelai explained. "Which explains my craving for apples recently."

"Right, because you would never eat apples otherwise."

"Only if they're baked into a pie or the tarts at my parent's Christmas party." She put her hand on the side of his face and pulled him to her to kiss his lips once more. She smiled as she pulled back to look him in the eyes. "Just think about it, in about nine months, give or take a little time, we'll have a little baby in this house."

Luke couldn't help but smile at the picture that formed in his mind. He could see Lorelai holding a little bundle, boy or girl it didn't matter to him. He could imagine both of them bringing their baby home from the hospital, Lorelai rocking their baby to sleep, both of them figuring out how to do the parenting thing together.

Lorelai tapped the side of his head with her finger, "Some pretty good images in there, babe?"

"Very good images," Luke replied. It seemed to hit him at that moment that he was going to be a dad. He was going to be in charge of raising someone. "Although I have no idea how to be a dad. I mean I helped take care of Jess a little when he was a baby but I don't know anything about babies."

"Well luckily you're married to someone who has had a baby before and who once knew nothing about babies," Lorelai said, trying to prevent a freak-out that might occur. "It's a learning process and you have me by your side so our baby will be fine. You'll be a great dad."

"You think so?"

"I know so," Lorelai answered confidently. She glanced over at the pot that still sat on the stove as a reminder of just how she failed in the kitchen earlier. "Well my plans for dinner are completely ruined now so it's looking like you might have to cook something unless you want to order in."

"I'm sure I can find us something to eat in this kitchen," Luke replied. He moved towards the stove and checked the contents of the pot that held their ruined dinner. He looked over his shoulder at Lorelai, "Want to help me with dinner?"

"I think I had enough of pretending I can be a culinary goddess for one day or for a lifetime," Lorelai said as she started to back out of the kitchen. "I'll leave that to you while I stay as far away from the stove as I can."

Luke chuckled, "That might be the best idea. I can't have anymore of my cookware ruined."

Lorelai made a face then stuck her tongue out at him before she turned around and walked out of the kitchen, headed upstairs to their bedroom to once again freshen up since she was sure that her tears from earlier completely ruined her make-up.

* * *

Later that night, after a dinner of a simple pasta dish that Luke managed to whip up, Luke and Lorelai settled down in the living room. The cheesecake that was the only survivor of Sookie's dinner sat on the coffee table, a couple of slices already missing.

"Just one more bite," Lorelai urged as she held the fork up to Luke's lips. He was never big on dessert, only eating a few bites whenever they shared something. Still Lorelai was set on making sure he ate his fair share of cheesecake since she still felt bad about ruining their dinner. She smiled when he took the bite of dessert. "See that's not so bad."

"It is pretty good," Luke commented.

Lorelai leaned her head on his shoulder. "Just so you know, this is not how tonight was supposed to go." She paused to take a few bites of cheesecake. "I wasn't going to just blurt out the news. I had something planned."

"Tell me what you had planned."

In between finishing off the piece of cheesecake on her plate, Lorelai told Luke of the plans she had for the two of them that night. It was supposed to start with a romantic, candle-lit dinner that would be ready as soon as Luke walked through the door. She would have beer for him to drink while she hoped that he wouldn't question why her drink of choice wasn't something alcoholic. But if he did ask, it would be the perfect segue to tell him that she was pregnant. If he wasn't curious and didn't ask, she planned to break the news to him over dessert.

"So see I had it all planned out perfectly but I should have known that something would go wrong," Lorelai said as she wrapped up her story on their plans for that night. "From now on my kitchen skills will be limited to assembling things on platter, cooking frozen foods, and making coffee."

"Yes to the first two but no to the last one," Luke replied.

Lorelai lifted her head from his shoulder to look him in the eyes, "Don't you dare say what I think you're going to say."

"You really shouldn't drink coffee when you're pregnant," Luke pressed on. "I may not know much but I do know that too much caffeine is not good for the baby."

"Luke," Lorelai whined. "You can't just take my coffee away."

"I'm not taking your coffee away, I'm just switching you to decaf," Luke pointed out.

Lorelai smirked. "We'll see about that."

"I am going to switch your coffee to decaf."

"And I said we'll see," Lorelai teased. She popped up from the couch and placed her empty plate down on the coffee table when she remembered another small part that played well into her night of announcing her pregnancy. "Stay right here. I'll be right back," she told Luke before darting out of the living room and heading upstairs.

A few minutes later, Lorelai reappeared in the living room with a small gift bag in her hands. She dropped the bag down onto Luke's lap before she curled up beside him on the couch. When he didn't make a move to look inside the bag, Lorelai gestured for him to just go ahead and see what was inside.

"It's not a gift for you, per se," Lorelai explained as Luke started to open up the bag. "But it is still a gift for you in the way that you'll like it and you'll need it soon."

He pushed the tissue paper out of the way and pulled out a small, pale yellow onesie with the words 'I love Daddy,' scrawled across the front. He looked over at Lorelai who grinned widely at him while she took the onesie out of his hands.

"I stopped in this store after I left Rory's dorm the other day and I saw this and thought it was very cute so I just had to buy it," Lorelai said. "I thought it had a great message."

Luke briefly smiled before he leaned in closer to Lorelai and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "I love you."

"I love you too babe."

Luke leaned back against the couch, a smirk now on his face. "I' m still switching your coffee to decaf."

Lorelai cuddled up to him. "We'll see how well that works out for you."

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 **Part of this was inspired by a chapter in Ultrawoman's "Our Little Corner of the World." I had a similar idea for Lorelai in this chapter as she did for Rory in one of her chapters. I just worked it out to match my story. Hope you enjoyed.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer in first chapter.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites. Hope you enjoy this update. I threw a little bit of Jess in this chapter in my own little spin of a scene from "Luke Can See her Face." Also a line or two from "Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days."**

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"You're never going to find the coffee, just give up and drink the decaf," Luke said to a frantic Lorelai who rushed around the kitchen in her frilly pink nightgown as she looked for the bag of coffee he had so cleverly hidden.

"Oh please," Lorelai sighed as she stopped her search for just a moment to turn towards him, her hands placed on her hips. "You should know by now to not doubt the abilities of the nose. The nose can and will find the coffee."

"You can't smell the difference between decaf and regular coffee, it all smells the same," Luke commented. He leaned back onto the counter and watched with an amused expression on his face as his wife began to flit around the kitchen again in search of her coffee.

"Says the man who doesn't even drink coffee," Lorelai threw back at him. "Ask Rory, she can smell the difference as well. And she's at Yale, so she's smart and I trust her."

Luke watched her for a few more minutes as she searched all the obvious hiding places in the kitchen, which included dumping out the bowl of fruit on the table to see if the coffee was hidden under there. She told him about the pregnancy a total of two days ago and this had been their morning routine since. He hid the coffee every night and she searched for it every morning. He knew that he could just throw the coffee away and this fight wouldn't happen in the morning but he knew that she probably liked the search. He also enjoyed watching her look through various hiding places. Plus if he threw it away, she would just go to the store and buy more thus starting the cycle all over again.

Luke walked over to Lorelai and grabbed her elbow to gently pull her towards him, "Decaf."

Lorelai smiled up at him, "Never."

His hand strayed to her side and his fingers gently ran over her belly that showed no signs of being pregnant, not that it would since they both figured she was only a few weeks along. "It's not good for the baby, it will have two heads."

"More to love," Lorelai grinned. She then scrunched up her face, "And don't call our baby it. The baby is a baby, not an it. It just sounds so unparently."

"Fine, no more calling the baby an it," Luke agreed.

His hand moved from her belly to the small of her back, pulling her up against him. He bent his head down and kissed her lips softly. He broke the kiss, only to bend down and place a soft, fleeting kiss to her still flat belly.

Lorelai smiled at the sweet sentiment, especially when he whispered "bye baby." She hadn't really expected for Luke to take to the news of them having a baby so fast. Since they talked about having kids before, she knew that he would be happy over their starting a family but she hadn't fully expected for him to touch and kiss her belly and whisper things like "bye baby." Not from the start at least. But he proved to be that guy the very night she told him she was pregnant since she fell asleep with his hand pressed to her belly.

She quickly pulled him back up to her and kissed him again before he was out the door and headed to work leaving Lorelai with the oddest sense of deja vu. It was then she remembered her dream from awhile back, not long after she and Luke got engaged, where she was pregnant and Luke took to hiding her coffee to try and prevent her from drinking it. The only differences with her dream and reality was that they were in a different house and she wasn't pregnant with twins. Well she couldn't say that for a fact yet since her only doctor visit was one right after she told Luke she was pregnant where the only thing the doctor did was confirm the pregnancy through a blood test.

Lorelai ran her hand over her belly at the thought of having twins, something that crossed her mind now since everything this morning seemed to relate to her dream. She supposed at her doctor's appointment next week that they may be able to tell whether she would have twins and she wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. Sure in her dream she was happy but the reality of two babies at the same time seemed daunting.

She quickly shook her head of those thoughts and told herself not to dwell on that until she went to the doctor again. Besides right now she wanted to find the coffee that Luke once again hid from her. With a determined glint in her eyes, she started to search through the kitchen cabinets again for the coffee that Luke tried so hard to forbid her from drinking from the moment he found out about the pregnancy. Even though Luke thought she should switch to decaf completely, she rationalized that one cup of her regular blend a day couldn't hurt anything.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Luke tried to be covert as possible as he scanned the many shelves of books located in the bookstore that Andrew owned. He was lost in the sheer number of books and tried to follow labels that would lead him to the books that he was in search of. Of course it would go faster if he would ask Andrew for help but he couldn't do that without exposing the very fact that Lorelai was pregnant which they were trying to keep from the town for now. It was all Lorelai's idea to keep it from the town, at least until she was further along, but Luke readily agreed since he wasn't ever one for town gossip anyways.

Jess entered the bookstore for his shift, since it was his day off from the diner, and headed towards the counter where he spotted Andrew so he could see what his tasks were for that day. After being told that they were some books that needed to be shelved, Jess grabbed the boxes from behind the counter and headed in the direction of the shelves that the books were to be placed. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed a familiar figure browsing the books and looking hopelessly lost while doing so. He decided that shelving the books could wait for now as he went to help his uncle. Besides, customer service was a part of the job.

"You lost?" Jess asked causing his uncle to turn towards him. "This isn't the flannel superstore, that's over in Woodbridge."

"Shut up," Luke said curtly, not in the mood for his nephew's sarcastic nature at this point. He just wanted to get in and out of the bookstore as fast as possible, hopefully without spilling the secret of his growing family. Though he wasn't sure how that was possible since he would have to pay for the books but he would come up with something.

Jess sighed. "What are you looking for?"

"Nothing," Luke replied, he turned back to searching the bookshelves but still addressed his nephew. "Don't you have work to do?"

"I'm trying to work now but you're not letting me," Jess countered. "Customer service is a part of the job."

"Customer service isn't exactly your field," Luke shot back. He huffed when he realized the books that he was looking for were not on the aisle he was currently on.

"You throw Kirk out of the diner at least once a week, I don't think you'll win Mr. Congeniality anytime soon," Jess smirked.

"That's different, that's Kirk," Luke pointed out.

Jess nodded his head. Luke did have a point. Kirk could be pretty picky about his orders sometimes. "Point taken."

"Look," Luke said as he looked towards his nephew. "I'm sure you have other work to do. I can find what I need. Go do whatever Andrew needs you to do."

Jess nodded, turned around, and walked away from his uncle without a word. If Luke didn't want his help and wanted him to get back to work then he wasn't going to try and argue with him because that wouldn't get them anywhere. As he walked back to where he left the box of books, a thought entered his mind of just what Luke could be looking for. He made a beeline straight for a shelf towards the back of the store.

Jess scanned the rows of pastel colored books and gathered a few that were listed as best-sellers. He smirked when he read the front of the books because they all claimed to be the best and ultimate guide to expecting a child and parenting. He learned that Lorelai was pregnant through one of his phone calls with Rory but was still surprised that Luke wanted to pick up books on the subject. He tucked the books underneath his arm and walked to where his uncle was currently searching for books.

"Here," Jess said, he grabbed the books and held them out towards Luke. "This was what you were looking for right?"

"Uh yeah," Luke replied, a little shocked that Jess knew exactly what he was looking for despite him forgetting to tell his nephew that Lorelai was pregnant.

"Rory told me," Jess answered the question that his uncle didn't even ask. "I didn't think you were in here for Hemingway."

Luke nodded, "Yeah, right. I just thought that I didn't know much and this is new and," he stammered to explain why he wanted the books that he currently held in his hands.

Jess interrupted, "I get it."

"So, uh, thanks," Luke said, he gestured to the books in his hands. He looked warily towards Andrew at the front of the store. "You know that we want to keep this a secret for now, right?" Jess nodded. "Is there a way to pay for these without letting Andrew see?"

Jess thought for a moment. "You can just give me the money. I'll take care of it."

Luke set the books down on a shelf and reached for his wallet, "How much do I owe you?"

Jess picked up the books and quickly scanned the back of all three of them. In his head, he added the numbers up and to the best of his ability, he estimated the sales tax. "Just call it an even seventy dollars."

"Are you kidding me?" Luke asked.

"You're the ones that wants these books," Jess replied. "I added in a little tip for me since I'm letting you walk out of here without Andrew seeing the books."

Luke grumbled but quickly grabbed the appropriate bills from his wallet. He thrust the bills in Jess' direction and took the books back at the same time. He tucked them under his arm and began to walk towards the front of the store with Jess right behind him.

Andrew perked up when he saw Luke coming his way but confusion crossed his face when Luke bypassed the counter and headed straight for the door. "You have to pay for those," he called out.

"I'll handle it," Jess told Andrew as he rounded the counter. He made a show of opening the cash register and placing the money that Luke had given him inside.

Luke stopped short when he realized that he didn't have a way to hide the books from Stars Hollow's prying eyes if he just walked out with the books tucked under his arm. Luckily Jess, once again, seemed to read his mind as he walked over to him and handed him a brown paper bag.

"Thanks," Luke muttered, placing the books carefully in the bag so Andrew couldn't see them.

"Don't worry about it," Jess replied. He looked down at his shoes then back over his shoulder at Andrew before he looked one final time at his uncle. He lowered his voice just so Andrew couldn't hear them. "You'll be a great dad," he said in his best reassuring tone.

Luke smiled on the inside. "Thanks."

"Why are you hiding from me what you're buying? This is my store," Andrew's voice rang out. "Is it porn?"

Jess turned around to face Andrew, "Do you even sell porn?"

"Well no," Andrew replied.

"You think he bought his own porn in here to buy?" Jess snapped.

Luke smirked at Jess' comment back to Andrew as he pushed open the door and walked outside onto the sidewalk. That was probably the same thing he would have said to Andrew if he took part in that conversation. He was thankful at that moment that his nephew worked in the bookstore part-time and could help him with his current need for books. He was never much of a reader but now he had something or rather someone to read for.

Even though no one in Stars Hollow had X-Ray vision, well Kirk claimed he had X-Ray glasses but was too afraid to use them at the risk of seeing under certain people's clothes, Luke still tried to hide the brown paper bag in his hands that contained his books as he walked down the sidewalk and back to the diner.

* * *

"You know I really don't think that Mom suspected anything tonight," Lorelai commented as she and Rory walked through the front door of their house after returning home from Friday Night dinner.

"You don't?" Rory asked as she and her mother took a moment to kick off their shoes at the front door before continuing on to the living room. "You must have not been at the same dinner I was at."

Lorelai plopped down on the couch, the early signs of pregnancy making another appearance in the form that left her with little to no energy. "In what way?"

"Well you didn't drink anything alcoholic tonight, which you usually do because you have your martini and then a little wine at dinner-time," Rory pointed out to which Lorelai gave a shrug. She joined her mother on the couch. "And then when dinner was served and the maid brought the veal, you jumped up from the table and made a mad dash to the bathroom."

"Yeah but I covered for that by saying that I had the stomach flu," Lorelai reminded her daughter. "I just said that I thought it was gone but decided to come back for one night only. Your grandma bought it."

Rory shook her head, "I don't think she did."

"She said she did," Lorelai replied. "She even let us leave early."

"Yeah but there was this way that she was looking at you and Luke," Rory explained. "Like she knew that you were both keeping something from her, or that she suspected something was up. There was definitely a look."

"Oh Rory, sweetie, you should know by now that is the way that your grandmother always looks at me," Lorelai commented. She quickly yawned before she continued on. "That look started when I was three and accidentally broke one of her vases that I'm sure she didn't even care about."

"I still say that she knew," Rory reiterated. "Grandpa might be a little clueless but I think Grandma knew. Why didn't you tell them anyways?"

"Because we agreed not to tell them right away. We wanted to wait a little while, at least until I go to the doctor," Lorelai explained.

"Well I'm pretty sure that Grandma already knows," Rory commented. "Or at least suspects that something is up."

Lorelai sighed then tried to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. "Don't you have a boyfriend that you can go be with instead of pestering your mother?"

"Jess and I have plans tomorrow," Rory informed her mother. "So tonight I'm all yours. I was thinking a movie night." She paused when she noticed her mother yawning yet again. "That is if you can make it through a movie night."

"I'm fine," Lorelai reassured her daughter. She fought back another yawn. "Or I'll be fine once Luke gets back here with the food since we didn't get to eat at dinner. Why do they call it morning sickness when it can happen at anytime of the day?"

Rory shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. Just another cruel trick of pregnancy that men will never have to experience?"

Lorelai laughed, "Sounds about right." She pushed up from the couch and headed towards the stairs. "I'm going to change into something more comfortable for our movie night so you're in charge of the movies," she called over her shoulder as she made her way up the stairs.

"Got it," Rory called back as she got up and started to sort through their movie collection.

Upstairs, Lorelai stripped off her dress, dropped into her laundry basket, and quickly changed into a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Just as she was about to exit the bedroom, she spotted a brown paper bag sitting on Luke's nightstand. Curious as to what it could contain since it could very well be a gift for her, she grabbed the bag and dumped the contents out on the bed.

A smile appeared on her face as she read the titles of the different books on expecting a child and parenting. She never read any books, besides the ones assigned for school, when she was pregnant with Rory. When Rory was born, she just went with what she knew and what felt right in bringing up her child. Of course she was only a teenager then. Although she wasn't sure that she would turn to books now since she never did before. But the fact that Luke had them and obviously planned on reading them warmed her heart.

"Lorelai, I'm back. Your food is downstairs, I threw in a two different flavors of pie. Although you might want to hurry, Rory looked like she was going to eat it," Luke called out as he walked into the bedroom. He stopped near the door when he noticed Lorelai sitting down on the bed with books spread out in front of her.

Lorelai picked up the biggest book in the collection and held it up, "I found your little secret."

"Oh, that," Luke replied.

"Yeah, that," Lorelai imitated him with a grin. She tilted her head to the side, "Were you trying to hide this from me? Because, if so, you didn't pick a very good hiding spot."

"I wasn't trying to keep it a secret," Luke tried to explain. "I bought them today, I didn't have a chance to tell you yet."

Lorelai nodded, "Okay, what made you decide to buy these though?"

Luke moved to sit next to her on the bed, "I just…," he sighed. "You've been through this before with Rory but I haven't. I figured I could get a book or two..."

"Or three," Lorelai chimed in.

"Or three," Luke corrected. "I thought I could read a book and maybe learn a thing or two," he shook his head as if to dismiss the idea.

"Well I think it's sweet and thoughtful," Lorelai told him.

"Really?"

Lorelai nodded as she moved to stand in front of him. When he patted his leg, she sat down on his lap, "Really," she confirmed. "Plus I'm sure that the books will agree that a little coffee a day is fine. They will be on my side."

"I'll tell you when I get to that part," Luke replied.

"Good."

Lorelai kissed him quickly but got up when she remembered that Luke said her food was downstairs and that Rory was waiting on her for movie night, even though she thought she might not last through movie night since she was tired. She told Luke to join them downstairs for movie night but he declined, telling her that he would let her spend this time with just Rory.

"Oh Luke," Lorelai called over her shoulder just as she was about to exit their bedroom.

"Yeah?" Luke called back.

"Did you really think Bert was the best hiding place for the coffee?" Lorelai asked, a smirk crossed her face. "I'll admit you're clever, just not clever enough."

"The next time I hide it, you won't be able to find it," Luke replied confidently.

"Just give up already," Lorelai urged.

Luke chuckled, "Never."

"Didn't think so."

"Just drink decaf already," Luke called after Lorelai when he noticed that she left the bedroom.

"Never babe," Lorelai called back as she headed back downstairs to join her daughter for a little quality mother-daughter time that she knew might be rare in the future due to both of the different and sometimes hectic schedules.

* * *

 **I don't write a lot of Jess so sorry if his character is a tad bit rough.**

 **As always reviews are appreciated!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer in first chapter!**

 **Sorry for the late-ish update. But with my internet still messing up and spending the last week and a half in bed sick, I don't have much time to update. I'm better now so here's another chapter. It's kind of just a filler chapter for the other stuff I have planned. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Lorelai laid back on the examination table in the obstetrician's office, her hands were folded across her belly that still showed no signs of a visible bump. She shifted around, trying to get comfortable in the papery gown that was provided for her to wear for her appointment. Luke moved around the room, scanning over the wall of pamphlets that contained a variety of detailed information on various aspects of pregnancy as well as bringing up a baby. Lorelai watched him quietly with an amused expression on her face as he picked up a pamphlet and flipped through it for a minute before he put it back in it's rightful place. She wasn't sure why he was looking through them since she was sure most of that information was in the pregnancy and parenting books that she caught him reading over every night before bed.

Lorelai was a little surprised that he seemed more comfortable than she expected him to be in the medical-related setting since she knew of his aversion to hospitals, doctors, and most things in relation to those in general. She summed this up to the fact that she wasn't here for being sick but for the fact that she was bearing his child.

While Lorelai was glad that she could still fit into her clothes and didn't need to shop for maternity clothes just yet, the pregnancy was already changing other parts of her body making her sorely uncomfortable in almost of the bras she already owned. After she thoroughly complained about this to Luke earlier this morning as he tried to rush her to get ready since he was sure they were going to be late, she informed him that they were going to add another stop onto their already planned shopping trip that morning following her appointment.

The decaf war that started the day after she announced her pregnancy to Luke still raged on in the Gilmore-Danes household. At home, Luke insisted on switching out Lorelai's coffee blend for his decaf blend which Lorelai always noticed and switched the coffee blends right back to their rightful places. Each time Lorelai stepped foot into the diner, no matter whether it was Luke or Jess working, she was served decaf coffee even if it wasn't what she wanted. She begrudgingly drank it to please Luke and out of her own concerns for a healthy pregnancy since she was slightly older than most women wanting to start a family. Though she knew that she wouldn't ever switch completely over to decaf no matter how hard Luke tried.

In between battling with Luke over her caffeine intake, she also battled her morning sickness with some days being worse than others. However the morning sickness did not stop her from continuing to head to the Inn everyday with Sookie so they could roam the place and get a handle on the renovations that they wanted and needed to make so everything would be in place for when the construction workers showed up to start their work the following week.

Lorelai smirked when she noticed the pamphlet that Luke now held in his hand. "Um honey," she addressed, "I don't think that one is for you. I think that is for the mothers. Unless you're planning on breastfeeding."

Luke quickly put the pamphlet back in it's slot on the wall. "I was just looking," he replied.

Lorelai laughed and motioned for him to come her way. "Come here," she called. When Luke came to stand by her side, she reached for his hand. "Remember you have books at home, you don't have to read up on pamphlets. I never read anything with Rory. I'm pretty sure nothing has changed since then."

"There's a lot to know," Luke countered. "I just want to learn some things so I can help you out."

"And that's really sweet," Lorelai acknowledged, "But there's only so much you can read about this," she said as she gestured to herself. "Some of it is just kind of a learn as you go thing. There are certain things you can't eat or drink but I'm already doing that. You just kind of go along with what comes. Plus, right now, it's still early on. I just have to let my body do what it's supposed to."

Luke nodded, "I know. I just want to be prepared by the time our baby is born."

"We have a while until that happens, you'll be fine babe," Lorelai assured him. "You don't learn how to be a dad through a book."

"I know that," Luke replied. He opened his mouth to say something else but then started to look at Lorelai like she was crazy when she started to laugh seemingly out of nowhere and like a crazy person. With a smile on his face, Luke asked. "What's so funny?"

After a few minutes, Lorelai quieted down enough to answer his question. "I was just thinking about how much Jackson freaked out when Sookie told him that she was pregnant and now how you're going to read everything you can on the subject, even though you're not a reader. We both chose crazy people to be the father of our children."

"Sookie knew Jackson was crazy, everyone knew, that man sings to his vegetables," Luke pointed out.

"I don't judge," Lorelai said. "We always had great produce at the Inn."

"If anything, you're the crazy one in this marriage," Luke replied.

"I think it is fifty-fifty now," Lorelai smiled. She sat up on the table, making sure she was still covered by the medical papery gown before she reached out to Luke and pulled him closer to her.

Luke knew the look in her eyes and before he could protest that the doctor could very well walk in at any moment, her lips were on his own. Just as Lorelai deepened the kiss, a knock sounded at the door. The door opened a few seconds later and in walked the doctor. She shook her head as the couple broke apart and Luke moved across the room away from Lorelai.

The doctor walked across the room and set the chart in her hands down. "You know, if you need a few minutes, I can come back a little later," she joked.

Lorelai picked up on the joke and decided to go along with it. "Ooh I like the sound of that. Give us a few minutes doc?"

"Lorelai," Luke said sharply.

Lorelai giggled, "I'm just joking honey. It would be longer than a few minutes." She turned to face the doctor and gestured towards Luke, "This one is not a fan of the quickies, not that I'm complaining."

"Lorelai," Luke reiterated in the same tone as before while his face turned a few different shades of red.

The doctor watched on with an amused expression on her face while she picked up Lorelai's chart and began to quickly glance over it, taking in the information presented there.

"Oh relax babe," Lorelai sighed. "I'm sure she's heard it all before or even seen things before, you know with pregnant women and hormones that can change their mood drastically. Hey doc," she called, "Has that ever happened? Have you ever walked in on a couple in the middle of something?"

"Only once, that's why I make it a point to knock before entering the room now," the doctor replied. She reached across the table and held her hand out to Luke, "Hi. I'm Dr. Montgomery, you must be the proud father."

Luke nodded his head to confirm as he shook the doctor's hand, "I'm Luke Danes."

"Nice to meet you," Dr. Montgomery relayed. She turned towards Lorelai who was now lying back on the table, same as before. "And how are you feeling? Any problems?"

Lorelai shook her head, "No problems, just the usual morning sickness but that's not too bad most days. A little more tired than usual. Besides that, everything is fine. We're all good here."

"All of that is normal at this stage of your pregnancy, sounds like you're doing well," the doctor replied. "Now let's see if we can get a clear picture of your baby."

Following the doctor's instructions for how she should lay back for the exam, Lorelai settled back more onto the examination table. Luke moved to stand beside Lorelai's head as Dr. Montgomery moved to the end of the table, draped a sheet across Lorelai's legs and prepped her for the ultrasound.

"Lorelai, this is your second child correct?" Dr. Montgomery asked, making conversation while she set up for the ultrasound.

Lorelai nodded her head, "Yes. The first, Rory, just started at Yale this year so it's been a while since I've dealt with something like this." She turned her head to face Luke. She made a face as she looked up at him, "But this is Luke's first child. That we know of, at least."

Luke sighed heavily, "I told you that your dream the other night meant nothing. I do not have a daughter that I am keeping from you."

"That you know of," Lorelai added on, "There could a child out there running around in flannel shirts and backward baseball cap with a permanent grumpy scowl on her face."

Luke shook his head, "But there's not. I've never had a child before. I'm going to tell you what I told you when you told me about it, it was just a dream. It doesn't mean anything."

"Maybe you're right," Lorelai said after a few minutes. "It did get a little crazy towards the end anyways with us not together, me marrying Christopher," she took the time to literally shake her head at the very idea, "it's all out of some soap opera, or a TV show where the writers felt the need to create unnecessary drama."

"Sure, it's like that," Luke replied. "It was just another one of your crazy dreams."

"Well if you two are ready, then please look at the screen," the doctor instructed the couple who now directed their attention towards her. She pointed to the bottom right hand corner of the screen, "Right here is your baby."

Lorelai smiled fondly at the black-and-white image on the screen. She looked back at Luke who was concentrated on studying the screen as the doctor pointed out that at this stage the baby was still small and hard to see for some people. She asked if they would like to hear the heartbeat and after getting a nod of confirmation from both Lorelai and Luke, a gentle whooshing sound filled the room.

Lorelai looked back at Luke again who now smiled at the screen and the sound of the heartbeat of their baby. She took his hand in hers and squeezed it softly, "Softie." She smiled when he bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"I would say by everything that I see here and by the information you gave us last time that you are about eight weeks along," Dr. Montgomery replied.

Lorelai mentally counted back the weeks before she looked up at Luke, "I think when you welcomed me back from Europe that you left behind a little souvenir."

Luke blushed at the comment and quickly ducked his head to avoid the doctor's gaze as she smirked at the comment from Lorelai.

"Your baby looks healthy, the heartbeat is great," Dr. Montgomery commented, "And everything is just as expected at this stage of your pregnancy. You're doing great."

"So only one baby?" Lorelai inquired. "There's not two of them in there?"

The doctor nodded as the image on the screen shifted around for a few seconds, "Yes from what I see here there is only one baby." She turned to Lorelai, "Were you expecting something different? Do you think you were having twins?"

Lorelai quickly shook her head to dismiss the idea, "Oh just another dream," she replied, feeling just the slightest smidgen of disappointment that she wasn't indeed carrying dreams but still overly happy that she and Luke were now starting their own little family.

Once the ultrasound was finished, the doctor handed over a small black-and-white picture and gave her the expected due date of May 18 for the baby's birth. Once Dr. Montgomery checked with Lorelai once again to make sure she was feeling well and was following the precautions of what not to eat or drink during pregnancy, she was out the door and off to see other patients. Lorelai quickly slid off the table and began to get dressed in the clothes she wore to the appointment.

"I know the doctor said you weren't having twins but the idea of twins..." Luke blew out a breath, "That seems a little overwhelming. I'm used to the idea of one baby, not two."

"Well there's only one bun in the oven," Lorelai said, a slight laugh to her voice. She buttoned up the last few buttons on her shirt, "Ready to go shopping?"

"Ready for you to shop while I sit back and watch you?" Luke asked. He nodded his head and held out his arm to her, "Let's go."

Lorelai smiled as she looped her arm through this, "Hey, we're also going to the hardware store. That should be your shopping fun."

Luke pushed open the door for her, "Let's just go."

* * *

"Ooh this one," Lorelai gasped, she tilted her head to the side and studied another paint chip with a curious expression. "Or maybe this one. Oh or this one." She shook her head when she came across color that was too bright to ever be in a room, especially a nursery, "But this one is an eyesore."

Luke breathed a sigh of relief when Lorelai finally fell silent about paint colors. He looked next to him where she stood studying the expansive shelf of multicolored paint chips categorized by the different brands of paint. As soon as they entered the hardware, almost an hour ago now, Lorelai found a salesman to direct her to the paint section and that's where they remained since as she tried to find a paint color that would be perfect for a nursery.

At first Lorelai showed him every color that she looked at and insisted that he help but after a few minutes she eventually settled to only showing him the colors that she deemed as nursery worthy. She rambled on about the paint chips, talking about the many different shades of a single color before moving onto another color and rambling on about the various shades of that color. Truth be told, with most of the colors, he couldn't tell the difference between the different shades but Lorelai insisted that there were differences, as subtle as they may be. She also insisted that the differences in the colors mattered in the well-being of their unborn child.

Luke spotted a ring of paint chips laying down beside the shelf of paint chips. He knew he would regret it, like when they were deciding on paint colors for the house, but he picked up the ring that held several choices of paints colors and held it out to Lorelai.

"Why don't you just get this?" Luke asked. "It will be easier to choose the paint colors if you have them all right here."

"Last time I had one of these, you hid it from me," Lorelai replied.

"I threw it away," Luke corrected her. "But only after you tried to paint our bedroom purple. We already knew what colors the rest of the house was going to be."

"Fine," Lorelai relented as she took the ring of paint chips from him. "Just don't throw this one away. Whatever color we decide to paint the nursery is important."

"So you've said," Luke replied. He started to walk away from all of the paint and headed in a certain direction after making sure that Lorelai was following behind him and not still at the paint. "There's one more thing I want to look at before we leave."

"And what's that?" Lorelai asked, "Do you really need more tools? Because Bert is full, he can't handle any more tools."

Luke shook his head, "No, I want to look at the wood."

"Building something?" Lorelai asked. "We're already married, I don't think we need another chuppah. Ours is already out in the backyard just sitting there and looking pretty."

"But we will need a crib soon," Luke replied. "I don't want to buy one from the store, those are made in some large factory and not well put together."

"So you want to build our baby a crib?" Lorelai inquired, a smile on her face.

Luke nodded, "My dad built mine and then my parents used the same one for Liz. I liked the way he built that one, I have pictures of it. I want to build one like that for our child."

"I think it's a very sweet idea, as long as it is safe for the baby and he or she doesn't end up rolling out of the crib in the middle of the night because daddy built it," Lorelai replied.

"I wouldn't say I wanted to build one if I knew that I couldn't make it safe. It will be safe and well put together, nothing to worry about," Luke said.

"I trust you," Lorelai smiled. She tilted her head to the side to look at Luke, "Are you planning to carve Gilbert the goat a friend onto the crib? Something else for me to name?"

Luke laughed and gave a shake of his head, "We'll see."

* * *

 **I know I didn't go with the whole typical twin thing, hope you still like this though.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the late update. I had a completely different idea for this chapter but I couldn't work it out so I bring you this chapter which I feel is better than my original idea. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Lorelai stood in just her bra and panties as she examined her figure in the mirror. She first turned to the left side, squinted her eyes and studied her reflection in the smooth surface of the mirror, mainly focusing on her midsection. She then turned to her right side and repeated the actions. To make sure that her eyes were not deceiving her, she ran her hand over her midsection and stopped on the small, almost miniscule, bump that seemingly popped up overnight.

She wasn't even sure if she would classify it as a bump because it was barely there and looked more like she was just bloated than anything else. Still she was positive it wasn't there the day before and was also positive that she would have a harder time fitting into her jeans because of the way her body was changing for the pregnancy. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror and rubbed small circles over her midsection before she moved to the closet to choice her clothes for the day.

In the two weeks since her first doctor's appointment, Lorelai had been one very busy future Inn owner. Just a few days after her appointment, she was able to officially begin work on the Inn that would be her and Sookie's baby. Taylor tried to impede Lorelai's efforts to being working on the Inn by sending her a cease and desist letter. However the matter was quickly resolved after a tour of the Inn and a near shakedown of Taylor, courtesy of Luke, during which Lorelai was sure that Luke was going to reveal that she was pregnant since he ranted on about how she didn't need the extra stress caused by Taylor. But at the end of the day, their secret was still theirs and the town had no idea that there would be a new resident the following year.

Being able to actually work on the Inn meant almost daily meetings with Sookie and at least twice weekly meetings with Michel so they could bring their dream to life. Her days were now spent at the Inn, surveying the work of Tom and his crew, and at various spots around town where she and Sookie met with different interior designers to begin designing their own Inn in the ways they always dreamed of.

Lorelai still hadn't told her parents about the pregnancy but did plan to tell them at dinner tonight. She was going to tell them sooner but morning sickness interrupted her plans again on a Friday which meant she got to skip another Friday Night dinner. Rory informed her that Emily was still suspicious on what was going on with Lorelai and Luke, but Lorelai just played it off even though she knew Emily would start questioning her soon.

There also wasn't a nursery color chosen yet since Lorelai found it hard to narrow down. Luke had already threatened her more than once to take away her paint chips if she didn't stop suggesting that they repaint the whole house with new colors that she discovered and if she didn't stop suggesting what color other people in town paint their houses. She hid the paint book from him and looked over it at night and while in meetings for the Inn since it could double as her paint chip book for the Inn.

Now fully dressed, shoes and all, Lorelai moved to stand in front of her mirror again. The dress she chose to wear was a bit looser then normal and gave of no signs that she was pregnant, just bloated or otherwise. She didn't want the town to gossip about her and Luke until she spread the news of her pregnancy herself.

Satisfied with her appearance, Lorelai glided out of the bedroom and down the stairs into the kitchen where Luke was just placing a plate of pancakes down on the counter next to a small bowl of cut-up fruit. She made her way over to him and planted a kiss on his lips.

"Chocolate chip pancakes?" She asked as she pulled back from Luke and went to inspect the pancakes.

"Banana walnut," Luke corrected her. "Walnuts are good for you, they're good for protein and fiber. You already like the banana pancakes, I'm just adding a few things in."

Lorelai arched an eyebrow, "Did you get that from reading your books?" she teased. She picked up the plate and carried it to the island in the kitchen, "They smell great babe."

Luke picked up the bowl of fruit that she left behind and sat it down next to her plate of pancakes. "Eat the fruit too."

"Can I have coffee?" Lorelai asked hopefully, with the thought that the fruit would balance out the caffeine from the coffee.

"Decaf," Luke answered.

Lorelai frowned, decaf didn't sound too appealing to her this particular morning. "I'll just take apple juice."

"Got it."

Luke grabbed a glass from the cabinet before he opened the refrigerator and retrieved the apple juice. He quickly poured Lorelai a glass and handed it to her before he put the apple juice back up and moved to stand in front of Lorelai.

"Now that you're up and fed, I have to go," Luke commented as he leaned down on the counter so he was face-to-face with Lorelai.

She closed the small gap between them and pressed her lips to his, "Okay babe. I'll see you for lunch."

"See ya then."

Lorelai dug into her pancakes as she walked him walk out of the kitchen. Only a few seconds after she disappeared, she heard his voice again informing her that Sookie was here. Lorelai called back for Sookie to join her in the kitchen then waited for her friend to show up.

"Hey Sookie," Lorelai greeted as her friend entered the kitchen. "Want anything?"

Sookie shook her head, "No, I already ate. I know that we were supposed to meet later but I have appliances that I want to order for the kitchen and I was too excited to wait until later today."

Lorelai laughed as Sookie began to get giddy talking about all the various kitchen appliances that she fell in love with and would be perfect for The Dragonfly. To make things easier, the pair moved to the dining room table where Sookie spread out her catalogs to show Lorelai everything that she was thinking of for the kitchen. Lorelai pointed out which appliances she thought would go with the paint color that she was thinking of for the kitchen.

The two friends quickly fell into the same rhythm that had encompassed them ever since they could begin work on the Inn. A give and take between Lorelai thinking realistically what they could afford while Sookie was a little more out of the budgetary restrictions with her choices. Though Lorelai did listen carefully to Sookie since she knew what appliances worked best. Soon, they lapsed out of the kitchen portion of the Inn design and managed to come up with a few ideas for different areas of their Inn.

* * *

Lorelai took a sip of her water before she placed it down on the table in front of her. Her eyes caught with her mother's, who was carefully examining her figure. She felt like a specimen under a microscope. She knew that her mother was examining her for any obvious signs of pregnancy, since she highly suspected that due to the excuses about the stomach flu and her lack of alcohol.

The room had fallen silent after everyone was served their drinks and Lorelai decided that now was the time to make her announcement. With the discovery of her small, slightly rounded, barely able to be seen, midsection earlier this morning, Lorelai knew that it wouldn't be kept a secret for much longer, a few weeks tops. Plus her parents deserved to know that they were going to be grandparents again.

Lorelai cleared her throat, her hand reached over for her husband's, "Luke and I have an announcement."

While her father seemed to perk up at the news of an announcement, her mother tried, and failed, to appear disinterested as she sipped on her martini. Lorelai tried not to let that affect her own feelings since she knew it probably stemmed from her mother's own suspicions about what was going on with her daughter with no real confirmation from her in weeks.

"What's going on Lorelai?" Richard finally asked when it appeared that his wife wasn't going to say anything.

"Well," Lorelai gave Luke's hand a small squeeze and she smiled at him as she finished off her announcement, "I'm pregnant." She turned her attention to her parents. "You two are going to be grandparents."

Beside her, on the opposite side, Rory coughed and sent a glare in her mother's direction to remind her that she existed and they were already grandparents.

"Again," Lorelai added on quickly. "You'll be grandparents again. For the second time."

Rory nodded her head once and gave a smile. "Thank you."

"Well that's wonderful news Lorelai," Richard exclaimed, a genuine smile spread across his face at the thought of another grandchild. "Congratulations to the both of you."

Luke spoke up before Lorelai, "Thank you Richard."

Luke stood up as his father-in-law stood up and the two men shook hands over the congratulations worthy news. Lorelai stood up alongside her husband and shared a hug with her father as he congratulated her once again over the pregnancy and she replied with a 'thank you'. When she pulled away from the hug and sat back down on the couch, she cast a glance over to her mother who sat there with a slight smile on her face.

"Mom?" Lorelai called tentatively. "Did you hear the news? You're going to be a grandmother again, anything you would like to say about that?"

"Well I agree with your father, it is wonderful news Lorelai. Congratulations," Emily replied.

Though her mother's words were kind, Lorelai couldn't help but feel that she didn't mean it as much as her father did. The tight-lipped smile her mother now wore just further exemplified what she already felt. She opened her mouth to elaborate on the details of her pregnancy, how far along she was and how everything was okay with her and the baby in an attempt to evoke some kind of reaction from her mother, but before she could say anything, Emily spoke up.

"I should go check on dinner."

With that, Emily sat her martini glass down and headed into the direction of the dining room. She kept her face and body language stoic as she didn't give a second glance back to any of her family members that all gathered around for drinks.

Luke looked to his wife as her grip on his hand loosened and then pulled away from him. Her eyes were focused on the path that her mother just walked out on, the expression she wore on her face was unreadable. He placed his hand on the small of her back. The small touch caused her to turn towards him. He watched as she smiled a certain smile that she always put on when she insisted that she was fine but really wasn't fine at all. He always saw directly through that smile.

"Lorelai," Luke said softly as he reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

Lorelai tore her gaze away from Luke and glanced between her father and Rory who both wore the same concerned yet slightly confused look on their face at the recent happenings in the household. She pushed up from the couch, "I'll be right back."

Lorelai walked through the always immaculate dining room and headed straight for the kitchen doors. She pushed open the door to find her mother projecting her unspoken feelings onto the maid who, according to what she could understand, put walnuts in the salad although walnuts were not requested. Lorelai could guess that her mother did request walnuts at first but now changed her mind just to have something to fuss to the maid about.

"Mom," Lorelai called as she tried to get her mother's attention. She sighed when her mother didn't hear her and continued to fuss over the salads. "Mom," she said more forcibly until she actually gained her mother's attention.

"What are you doing in here Lorelai?" Emily asked. "You don't need to be in here, dinner will be served in a few minutes if someone can remember just for a few minutes that I do no want walnuts in the salad."

Lorelai smiled apologetically at the maid, whose name she didn't know because she was new and who looked absolutely terrified to be making salads. "You know, walnuts in the salad aren't too bad."

"I do not want walnuts in my salad," Emily snipped.

"Walnuts are good. Luke made banana walnut pancakes this morning because he read that walnuts were good for pregnant women, they were pretty tasty," Lorelai replied. She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, "But if you really don't walnuts then just pick them out."

When Emily gasped and gave her an incredulous look, she sighed, "I know, I know, that's not the Emily Gilmore way. I also know that this," she gestured between her mother and herself, "Isn't about walnuts or you suddenly having to check on dinner."

When it looked like the walnuts were about to make a reappearance on the salads, Emily snatched the bowl of them up and moved them away from the salads before she replied to Lorelai. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Fine," Lorelai huffed, she crossed her arms, "Let me elaborate. What the hell was that back there?"

"Watch your language Lorelai," Emily replied sharply.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Just explain something to me, I tell you that I'm pregnant and while Dad is happy about the fact that he's going to be a grandfather again, you barely have a reaction."

"I reacted Lorelai," Emily informed her daughter. "I congratulated you and Luke, I told you that I thought it was wonderful news."

"And yet somehow I still don't believe you," Lorelai replied. "When you say congratulate someone the way that you just did, when you use that tone, it makes it hard for me to believe that you mean it."

"Would you like me to jump up and down and throw some confetti into the air? Would that make you believe that I'm happy about the fact that you're having a baby?"

Lorelai rubbed her hand over her face and sighed, "What's really going on here Mom?"

"There is nothing going on here Lorelai," Emily said. "I told you that I'm happy for you. Congratulations."

"So you're happy but you just have to leave the room immediately after I announce the news but not before I have to actually prompt you to say something about this pregnancy that you're just so overjoyed about?" Lorelai inquired, she arched her eyebrow as she waited for a response from her mother.

Emily blew out a breath, "I don't know what else you expect from me Lorelai."

"I expected more than a monotonous, robotic response from my mother." Lorelai gave a shake of her head, "You know if you're really not happy about this then you don't have to pretend. I thought you would expect Luke and I to have kids, you did ask me about it before but maybe you don't want more grand kids. I don't know."

"Lorelai, that's crazy. I do want more grandchildren, I am happy for you and Luke," Emily repeated.

Lorelai slapped her hand down on the kitchen counter when it still didn't seem like her mother was genuine, "Then what is your problem? Why can't you at least act happy for me for this one thing? I don't expect cartwheels or anything but for you to at least act sincere."

"Why couldn't you tell me when you found out?" Emily asked.

"What?" Lorelai replied, a bit startled at the question. "Why does that matter?"

"Did you just decide that I finally deserve to know? I knew from the moment you told me you had the stomach flu, funny how it only came up when you couldn't eat your dinner because you were sick," Emily replied.

"So you're mad that I didn't tell you when I first found out?" Lorelai asked. She went on before her mother could answer. "I've only known for a few weeks, we haven't really told anyone. I was going to tell you last Friday but I was sick again. I thought you would want to hear it in person and not over the phone."

Emily stared at her daughter, "You kept this from me. You kept me out of your life again."

"Okay so I didn't tell you the moment I found out but I'm telling you now," Lorelai replied at a loss. "What are you…."

Her question was interrupted by her mother continuing on with her rant. "You couldn't bother to tell me that you were pregnant until a few weeks after. You're trying to keep stuff from me again." Emily turned so she didn't face Lorelai anymore. "You kept Rory from us when you moved to that town, we hardly ever got to see her growing up. We missed everything from her life. We weren't even a part of her life."

Lorelai exhaled as the pieces clicked together and she realized the real reason for her mother's attitude. It wasn't the fact that Emily wasn't happy about the prospect of more grandchildren or the fact that Lorelai kept this from her for a few weeks, or even the walnuts. She could see that it was more about her mother's fear of missing out on so much of this child's life like she did with Rory. Thinking about it, she couldn't really blame her mother for thinking that after the way things happened when she was younger. But she was older now, married, and in an improved relationship with her parents.

"Mom, is that why you're acting like this?" Lorelai asked, her voice soft. "Because you think that I'm going to keep you out of this baby's life?"

When her mother didn't turn around or even answer to her pleas for her to turn around so they could talk, Lorelai moved around the kitchen so she could stand in front of her mom.

"I know that you didn't get to see Rory grow up and that both you and Dad missed out on so many moments of her life but I couldn't stay here. I had to go. I don't think I can explain to you why and have you understand but I needed to get away from here. I'm sorry that you missed out," Lorelai replied. "But things are different now. We're different. I'm not going to keep you out of this baby's life. Luke and I don't want to keep you and Dad out."

Emily could see the sincerity in her daughter's eyes, she knew that Lorelai meant what she just said. That she wouldn't keep this child from her and Richard like how things were with Rory many years ago. Lorelai was right, things were different now and they were different. Of course, they still fought over things but their relationship had definitely improved in the past couple of years.

Emily cleared her throat, "How far along are you?"

"About ten weeks," Lorelai answered.

Emily glanced at Lorelai's midsection that still looked relatively flat to her, "And you and the baby, you're both healthy? Nothing is wrong?"

Lorelai smiled, her hand strayed down to her midsection, "We're both healthy."

"Well you are older, there are a few more risks as you get older," Emily replied.

"I know, but we're both healthy."

"Good, that's good," Emily said with a nod of her head. "And Lorelai, I really am happy about this, I mean it. Congratulations."

"Thanks Mom," Lorelai said with a small smile. She glanced behind her at the clock that hung on the wall. "Uh-oh, looks like you're breaking your own rule now."

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Emily asked.

"It's 7:15," Lorelai commented. "Dinner was supposed to be served fifteen minutes ago. You're behind."

Emily looked around the kitchen for the maid that she recently hired but she was nowhere to be found. The salads were missing as well. She noted that the walnuts still remained in the bowl. Emily figured the maid must have followed her rule of dinner being served promptly at seven, even if she wasn't currently at the table.

"Well it looks like she finally listened about the salad," Emily commented. "Though she did serve dinner when not everyone is at the table."

"That could be our fault, we were in here and paying no attention to the dinner at seven rule," Lorelai replied. She laughed when her stomach rumbled, "Should we go join them?"

"Let's go," Emily agreed.

Emily was the first one out the kitchen door and followed promptly by Lorelai. Richard, Luke, and Rory were all seated at the table with their untouched salads in front of them. Richard looked like he was a few seconds away from dozing off while Luke and Rory appeared to be talking about something. Emily called Richard's name to get his attention and tell him that they could now begin dinner. Meanwhile, Lorelai took her seat next to Luke.

As she sat down, Luke reached for her hand under the table and leaned over to whisper in her ear, "You okay?"

Lorelai nodded, "I'm okay," she smiled.

* * *

 **As always reviews are appreciated.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer in first chapter.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows.**

 **The beginning of this chapter switches things up just a little bit with a little insight from Miss Patty.**

* * *

Miss Patty could sense that something was up. Years of living in a small town and snooping around in everyone else's business awarded her with a keen sense of when someone had a secret. Right now that someone – or two someones that she suspected held a secret – happened to be the most recently wedded couple in Stars Hollow. Their very own Luke and Lorelai.

Since they were the most recently wedded couple and there was one thing that most couples wanted to get started on sometime after their wedding, Miss Patty had a pretty good idea of the secret that they were allegedly keeping. Granted she couldn't say for sure that her inkling was correct but there was some evidence that played out right in front of her eyes that led her to believe that she knew exactly what was up with the couple.

Luke's demeanor was one piece of evidence that weighed in favor. Sure, he was less grumpy ever since he and Lorelai got together, but something about the past few weeks had him happier than Patty had ever seen him. As for Lorelai, Patty thought that she had a certain glow about her. A glow one only gets from carrying a child – similar to the glow from really great sex. Plus she could have sworn she overheard, in one of Luke and Lorelai's private discussions in the diner that she eavesdropped on, something about a nursery but she couldn't be completely sure since Luke said they would discuss it at home and not while he was working. He ended that conversation by handing several paint chips back to Lorelai before he went to serve customers.

Since she decided that it was her duty to keep an eye on the couple, she also noticed Luke only reached for the decaf pot whenever Lorelai asked for coffee and he would always add extra fruit or vegetables to her plate no matter what she ordered. Miss Patty also kept a close eye on Lorelai's figure but hadn't noticed any significant changes. Babette's help was enlisted but since the couple in question no longer lived next door to her, she only had the information she gleaned from her trips to the diner. A few other members of the town were also brought in to give information or their own opinion and eventually a small pool was set up with bets thrown in on whether or not Lorelai was pregnant.

At this moment, Miss Patty observed Lorelai as she sat across the diner from her, commandeering three tables while she and a woman, whose name she learned was Natalie, planned out the interior decorating for the Inn. Earlier, she watched as Luke got a little worked up over the fact that Lorelai claimed so many tables but as usual he let the issue go and let Lorelai have her multiple tables. With her dance classes scheduled for the late afternoon, she had plenty of time to just sit in the diner and catch up on the latest gossip as well as try and create some gossip on her own.

Across the diner and well aware of the knowing eyes on her, Lorelai readjusted her glasses while she went back and forth with Natalie about the benefits of different wallpapers for the Inn and which wallpapers would give Lorelai the certain feel and look that she wanted for The Dragonfly. After taking over three tables at the diner for the better part of two hours, their conversation was winding down with Lorelai's head filled with plenty of new ideas that she promised to share with Sookie the very next moment she had time to talk with her friend and business partner.

Natalie stood up and gathered her binders full of decorating ideas into her arms, leaving a couple for Lorelai to flip through at her convenience. "I think we covered enough today, we can talk another time about the other thing that you wanted to discuss."

Lorelai nodded and stood up alongside Natalie, while they chatted she had discreetly asked her for nursery ideas just to see what the interior designer had to say. "Alright, sounds good," she agreed. "We're still meeting again in a few days, right?"

"Right," Natalie confirmed. "I have a meeting and shopping day scheduled next week with both you and Sookie."

"As long as it doesn't interfere with her daily pregnancy nap," Lorelai replied, knowing that lately she scheduled her time with Sookie around the now daily post-lunchtime naps as her friend neared the end of her pregnancy.

Natalie laughed in response. "We can work around that. See you later Lorelai."

Lorelai said her goodbyes to Natalie and showed her to the door before she moved the tables back to their designated locations as she promised to Luke earlier once she insisted, quietly, that it wouldn't harm the baby for her to move a few tables. She grabbed the binders Natalie left her as well as her coffee cup and headed to the counter where her husband was meticulously wiping down the counter for what she swore was at least the hundredth time today.

"Done disrupting my business?" Luke asked as his wife approached the counter and sat down on her chosen stool. He grabbed the decaf pot of coffee when she indicated that she wanted a refill.

"I didn't disrupt anything," Lorelai insisted. "As you may have noticed not one person that came in during that time needed one of the tables. I just occupied a table that would have been empty and alone. Do we really want the table to be lonely?"

"Kirk came in while you took over three tables," Luke pointed out.

Lorelai looked at him over the rim of her coffee cup, "And?"

"Since there were no tables, he had to sit here at the counter."

Lorelai gave a small shrug of her shoulders, "And? Kirk sits at the counter sometimes, he also runs through town naked sometimes when he has nightmares. You don't question Kirk's actions. It's best to just let him be Kirk."

"He kept mentioning his girlfriend Lulu."

"He's in love," Lorelai cooed. "We should be happy that he found someone that likes him for him. Lulu accepts him and all his Kirk-ish ways. I was a little afraid that he was going to end up alone. Lulu's good for him."

"He told me things," Luke began, "Things that I have no business knowing, things that no one needs to know. Things that I now have a mental picture of."

Lorelai grimaced and a shiver ran through her at the very thought of what Luke had to hear from Kirk. "You can stop there, no need to go further."

"But he's in love," Luke mocked his wife using the same she used just moments earlier. "Aren't you happy for him?"

"Don't mock," Lorelai said with a slight pout. "And I'm not that happy, no need to share details." She pushed her coffee cup to the side and leaned down on the counter so she was closer to her husband. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Do surveillance for me."

"Do what?"

"Is Miss Patty still watching me?" Lorelai asked still in her hushed tone. She glanced up at Luke who didn't ask any more questions but just casually glanced over her shoulder to see if the dance teacher was looking their way. She only carried on when she locked eyes with Luke again and he nodded hi head. "She has been watching me this entire time."

"What's new about that? That's what she does in her free time. She comes in her, sometimes with Babette, and they just watch people and gossip as if they have nothing better to do," Luke replied. "I would kick them out but they order food and pay for the time they are here. It wouldn't be good for business."

"Yeah I know that, I sit with them sometimes they do know everything," Lorelai pointed out, "But she's like watching watching me," she emphasized. "Honestly she kind of reminds me of my mother when she knows I'm keeping something from her."

"And?"

"And I think she knows," Lorelai whispered conspiratorially. A confused glance on her husband's face gave her the information she needed to carry on and explain. "As in knows what we recently shared with my parents just a few nights ago but haven't shared with the town just yet."

"Oh," Luke sighed. "How could she know that? You haven't told anyone, have you?"

"The only other person in this town that knows aside from you, Rory, and Jess, is Sookie and I don't think she said anything to anyone, she promised me that she didn't," Lorelai replied. "Anyways I think we should tell them."

"Tell them? Are you sure?"

Lorelai smiled before she gave a nod of her head, "Yes, I'm sure. I'm not going to be able to hide it for much longer so we should tell them and we should tell them soon. Good thing Taylor scheduled a town meeting for tonight we can just do it there."

Luke groaned at the very idea of a town meeting. They weren't his thing but he attended some of them because Lorelai wanted him to and she promised that there would be plenty of mocking material. The meetings he didn't attend were practically reenacted for him the minute Lorelai returned home from one. He had to admit that he enjoyed her impressions of the town people at the meetings more than actually going to a town meeting.

"Do we have to tell them at the town meeting? I wasn't even going to go tonight, I was going to stay here at the diner tonight," Luke replied.

Lorelai nodded eagerly, "Yes, the best way will be to spill the beans at the town meeting. Everyone will be there so we'll only have to announce it one time and possibly answer a few questions, it's the perfect way to tell them."

"And I have to go with you, don't I?"

"Of course you do babe," Lorelai answered him with a grin on her face. "We're equally a part of this, this is your news as well as mine. We have to do it together. They have all been there for us, the both of us, so they deserve to know."

Before Luke had a chance to reply and possibly try to get out of the town meeting even though he knew he would go and stand by Lorelai to share the news, Miss Patty appeared by Lorelai with a knowing smile on her face.

"Do I hear that you have news, dear?" Miss Patty asked, her gaze slowly going from Lorelai to Luke and then back to Lorelai. "Anything you're willing to share with me?"

Lorelai returned Miss Patty's smile. "Mhm," she hummed. "I may have some news."

"What's new in your life?" Miss Patty inquired, she leaned in just a bit closer to Lorelai. "You know that you can tell me anything. I mean anything." With that last part an almost lustful gaze appeared on her face as she stared at Luke causing the man in question to become uncomfortable and Lorelai to laugh.

"You'll find out my possible news along with everyone else," Lorelai informed the older woman in front of her. "I promise but you will have to wait until later like everyone else."

"Are you sure you can't tell me beforehand?" Miss Patty asked.

Lorelai responded with a shake of her head, "Nope. You can wait like everyone else, I can assure you that you'll like the news that I may or may not have."

"You look absolutely beautiful today Lorelai, you're practically glowing," Miss Patty prodded on.

Lorelai titled her head to the side slightly, "Don't you have a dance class to teach? Some little apples to tend to?"

"I have little dancing gourds this year," Miss Patty answered. She turned to leave but gave one last look over her shoulder at both Luke and Lorelai. "I'll see you two later."

"Told ya she knows," Lorelai said as she turned her attention to her husband. "I don't know how but I'm pretty sure she knows."

"Then I think we can skip the town meeting tonight and I can take you out," Luke replied, "If she already knows then there's no point in telling."

"Take me out? I thought you said you were working in the diner tonight," Lorelai reminded him.

"I am but if you wanted to skip the meeting then we could go somewhere, wherever you want to go," Luke tried to entice her.

"We're going to to the town meeting," Lorelai instructed him. "If you're really insistent about it, you can always take me out after, a movie would be great."

Lorelai just laughed when Luke started to grumble and how most of them were filled with every kind of nonsense that no one but Taylor could come up with. She gathered her purse and binders full of decorating ideas, moved off of her stool, and rounded the counter to stand in front of Luke.

Lorelai placed her free hand on the side of his face and kissed him gently to stop his grumbling. "I know you don't really like town meetings all that much but you should be happy to share this news, it's pretty great news."

"Yes it is," Luke agreed. "I'll meet you here before the meeting."

Lorelai nodded, "Sounds good."

Lorelai leaned forward and gave him another quick kiss before she was out the door and headed towards her jeep. On her way to the jeep that's parked just down the road from the diner, Rory called her and she informed her daughter of the way she was going to tell the town. Rory agreed that the idea sounded like a good way to tell the town since it would cover telling many people that meant a lot to her in one fell swoop. She asked for a call after the meeting for details to which her mother promised to call again as soon as she could. Still chatting away on the phone to her daughter, Lorelai drove away and headed towards her soon-to-be renovated and redecorated Dragonfly Inn to check the progress with Tom and his crew.

* * *

Later that night, Luke waited outside in front of the diner for Lorelai to show up. The diner door boasted that it was closed since the only customers he had recently were townies stopping by for a quick bite before the town meeting. He loved the news that they had to share and was thrilled since he was going to be a dad but he didn't care for announcing it to the town since he figured, like everything else, the town would try to involve themselves into business that wasn't their own.

Luke nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind. A familiar tinkling laugh alerted him that Lorelai had finally shown up. He felt her arms unwrap from around his waist as she came to stand by his side, now looping her arm through his and tugging him away from the diner and towards the dance studio.

"I know, I know, I'm a little bit late but I was on the phone and we were discussing horses and I may have found the horses for the Inn," Lorelai boasted proudly. "I finally have my grown-up excuse to buy a pony."

"Pepper and Gunsmoke?" Luke inquired.

"Hmm, no I don't think those will work but I do have them on hold as I look at other horses," Lorelai answered. She stopped in front of the dance studio doors and in a sudden movement, she turned him to face her, "Wait, how did you know that already?"

"I received several messages for you today about the Inn, from Tom, the horse lady, and a few others," Luke replied.

"Oops," Lorelai smiled. "Well they just know we're married so they assume it's okay to call there. I'll tell them to stick to the house phone and my cell-phone only."

Luke nodded, "You bet you will."

Lorelai tugged on his sleeve and walked backwards to the half-open dance studio door, "Come on, let's get in there before we miss all the good stuff."

After a reprimand from Taylor from showing up late to a meeting that they knew very well started at a certain time, Luke and Lorelai slid into two open seats at the back that happened to be next to Sookie and Jackson. While Taylor droned on about their most recent problem with squirrels overtaking the town square, the real reason for calling a town meeting on a night when they were not usually held, Sookie filled Lorelai in on what she missed. Lorelai took that time to inform her on the latest happenings of the Inn that she missed earlier that day.

"Ooh we've finally decided on a name for the baby," Sookie informed her best friend while they both ignored the town meeting going on around them.

"Really? What is it?" Lorelai asked. She quickly glanced over at Jackson then back to Sookie, "Or can you not tell me now because of your husband over there who is stuck in 1954."

Sookie looked over her shoulder at her husband who was rather heated over the squirrels since they were migrating from the town square into his vegetable patch. She turned back to Lorelai, "He's not paying attention and we're fighting and not speaking so I can tell you."

"You're fighting? Everything okay?"

Sookie waved off her friend's concerns with her hand, "Oh it's fine, I picked the fight because he wanted to name the baby Colgate if it was a girl, so I had to fight with him on the name so we won't know that we're having a boy. We're fine."

"Right, right," Lorelai nodded along, "So what's the name?"

At that moment, Luke leaned over, "Are you two even listening?"

Lorelai shushed him."Taylor's not that interesting right now plus Sookie has more important news. I promise I'll mock Taylor with you later."

"Before we were interrupted," Sookie sent Luke a pointed glare. "I was going to tell you that we plan to name the baby Davey."

"Aww, I love Davey," Lorelai cooed.

"Me too," Sookie agreed giddily.

The sharp rap of the gavel against the podium drew both Sookie and Lorelai's attention back to Taylor at the front of the room. Lorelai began to shift uncomfortably in her seat when it seemed that his gaze was solely fixated on her. He finally cleared his throat and began to speak again.

"Well Lorelai you don't seem to care about the welfare of your very own town because if you did, you would have pitched in on the discussion instead of spending the entire time talking but I was told by Miss Patty," he gestured towards the lady herself. "You have some news that you would like to share. Even though you didn't listen or participate, I will give you the floor."

"I do have news," Lorelai said as she pulled herself up from the chair and into a position. She looked down at Luke who remained seated and nudged his shoulder until he finally stood up. She smiled and held his hand with her. "Actually we have some news."

"What's going on sugah?" Babette asked in her raspy voice.

"I wanted to tell all of you here so everyone can hear the news that we have to share at once. You all mean a lot to me and Luke," Lorelai insisted though the man would never admit it himself. "So we're excited to share the news with you." She squeezed Luke's hand tight and smiled his way before turning back to the crowd. "Next year Stars Hollow will have one new little resident. I'm pregnant."

"Oh I knew that I was right," Miss Patty proclaimed excitedly before congratulating the couple on their news.

After Miss Patty came a flood of well wishes and congratulations and a few people claiming that they already knew despite just being told the news, from all around the room. Soon Luke and Lorelai were surrounded by a few of the more nosy townies, mainly Babette and Miss Patty, who had several questions for the expectant couple. Lorelai answered the ones she wanted to answer since the ladies were asking questions that were a little too personal and questions that she knew Luke wouldn't like to be answered. While she chatted with the ladies, she noticed Luke had been shanghaied by a few different people and was currently answering his own questions.

The caring questions and congratulatory well wishes faded away after just a few minutes when the pool on whether or not Lorelai was pregnant was remembered by one of the members of the town. Since everyone was preoccupied with who won want and since Lorelai could see that Luke was just a few seconds away from turning many different shades of red at the town's latest antics, she grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the crowd and out the door into the cool night air.

"I can't believe they would do something like that," Luke bellowed. "Placing bets on something that's private."

"Well I'm not exactly happy about it," Lorelai interjected. "I mean Kirk mentioned something about my weight while we were in there but it gave us the opportunity to sneak out of there."

"They had no right to do any of that."

"No they didn't," Lorelai agreed. "We live in a town full of crazy people who have weird ways of showing that they care, even if it means betting on something like that. Who knows, they'll probably bet on whether we're having a boy or a girl when that time comes."

Luke groaned. "Why do we live in this town?"

Lorelai giggled, "Because it is our home, it wouldn't feel right to live anywhere else but here."

Luke shook his head, "This town is one big outpatient mental institution."

"And you're one of the crazy yet loveable residents," Lorelai reminded him. She shivered when the night air caused little goosebumps to pop up on her arms. "Now come on, let's go home. It's cold out here."

"I thought you wanted to go to a movie after the town meeting," Luke replied.

Lorelai grinned wickedly up at her husband as she stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Forget the movie. I have plans that involve you, our bed, and not letting you leave for a long, long time."

"Let's go home."

* * *

 **I feel all the chapters lately have been mainly about the pregnancy but now that everyone knows, I'm going to start adding in more than just the pregnancy stuff. Just getting back on track with some but not all of the stuff in the episodes so the timeline will kind of straighten out. Timeline is still a little wonky though.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer in first chapter.**

 **Okay, I know it's been awhile since I posted an update to this story too but the good news is that I have most of the next chapter already finished so you shouldn't have to wait this long for another update again!**

 **Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows!**

* * *

"Ooh what about this one? Or this one? But this one is pretty too. This one would look great in the kitchen and before you say anything I know you just recently painted the kitchen before we moved in but this color just screams 'kitchen." Lorelai laughed, "It's even named after a food."

As Luke stood at the kitchen sink, he had his back to his wife who cooed over what seemed liked endless paint samples much to his own annoyance. Since Cesar wanted more time at the diner, Luke allowed him to open up this morning while he stayed home and spent the morning with Lorelai. In hindsight he thought the idea was great, a lazy weekday morning at home with his wife, until Lorelai broke out her paint chips that she had successfully hidden from Luke for the past few weeks and declared that they could use this time to pick out a paint color for the nursery. But her version of them picking out paint colors was her oohing and aahing over every color while he just nodded along and hoped she would choose a color soon. He blamed himself since over the past week he harped on about how they needed to choose a color soon so painting the nursery could be one thing they could check off their to-do list before the baby was born.

Luke finished cleaning up the rest of their breakfast mess before he turned around to face Lorelai who was leaned back against the counter with one hand flipping through paint samples and one hand resting on her small rounded midsection that seemed more prominent that it did just a couple of weeks ago. He sighed inwardly when she cooed over yet another color that was probably for some other room in the house besides the nursery.

"I think I have found the perfect color for the nursery," Lorelai announced much to his surprise. She smiled and turned the card towards him, "What do you think? Could our baby grow up in a room this color?"

Honestly he couldn't tell the difference in this shade of yellow from the other shades of yellow she showed him this morning over breakfast. They were all a pastel shade of yellow that had some ridiculous name attached to make the color 'cutesy', as Lorelai called them.

"I think it looks the same as every other color you showed me this morning," Luke replied gruffly.

Lorelai made a face. "Okay, someone's grumpy this morning."

"I'm not grumpy."

"And I'm not pregnant – oh wait," Lorelai quipped with a smirk on her face. "So whats with the tude mister? I'm supposed to be the one with the mood swings."

"I'm not grumpy," Luke insisted. He ran his hand through his hair that was unburdened by his usual blue baseball cap. "It's just that color looks the same as every color you already showed me."

"See that's where you're wrong. There are subtle differences," Lorelai corrected him. "Slight and subtle but still there." She moved closer to him and held the paint chip at eye level. "So yes or no for our future child's room?"

Luke gently nudged the color sample away from his face, "Do you like it?"

Lorelai nodded eagerly. "It reminds me of these little duckies that Rory and I used to feed at the Inn when she was little. Whenever I got the chance we would sit outside in the afternoon, throw little pieces of bread at them, and Rory would end up chasing them and laughing because at two years old, ducks were her favorite animals."

"If you like this color then we can paint the nursery this color."

"I know that I like this but I want to know if you like it."

Before Luke could tell her that she was definitely better at the whole decorating and deciding paint colors for certain rooms than he was, a voice called out interrupting them. "Mom? Luke?"

"Kitchen babe," Lorelai replied. She looked up at Luke, "I'll just get Rory's opinion on the color."

A few minutes later Rory entered the kitchen with two duffel bags filled to the brim with dirty laundry which Luke immediately took from her and carried them towards the laundry room. Lorelai turned her attention to her daughter and held the paint chip that she tried to get Luke's opinion on out towards her.

"Quick! What does this color make you think of?"

"Aww little duckies," Rory responded almost as soon as her mother finished asking the question.

Lorelai grinned, "Exactly what I said." She turned around the minute she heard Luke coming up behind her. "Rory agrees on the color. So if you also agree we will have the paint color for the nursery."

Luke plucked the color sample from Lorelai's hand and slid it into the pocket of his flannel shirt. "I'll pick up the paint when I go to the hardware store."

Lorelai sent a smile in her daughter's direction, "That's his way of saying that he likes the color." She tilted her head slightly to the side as she looked at Luke, "And here you were worried that I was never going to choose a color. But see wasn't this painless?"

"Painless for you maybe," Luke replied.

"Oh hush."

Luke chuckled before he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll head out to the store now, let you spend some time with Rory." Instead of pressing a kiss to her belly as per usual, his hand rested there while his thumb rubbed small circles against the fabric of her shirt. "Call me if you need anything."

Lorelai leaned in and pressed her lips to his quickly. "I know babe."

The husband and wife shared another goodbye kiss before Luke turned and left the kitchen leaving the mother and daughter alone which Lorelai thought of as much needed mother and daughter time since their individual schedules left them for little time for each other lately.

"Not that I'm complaining about you coming by for a visit..."

"Or to do laundry," Rory interjected.

"To come visit your one and only, breathtaking mother," Lorelai continued on, successfully sidestepping Rory's need to do laundry. "It's a weekday, usually I see you Friday nights and weekends. What gives? No classes today?"

Rory shook her head, "Some professors canceled classes today so I figured I would take the time to do my laundry that was piling up. I was just going to do it at school but it seemed that everyone else had the same idea to do laundry so I decided to come home."

"Aww hon, you don't have to make up excuses just because you miss your mommy. I know with the new baby on the way that you might get a little jealous but I still love you too," Lorelai replied, a teasing smile crossed her face while her daughter rolled her eyes.

"Ha-ha very funny mom. So laundry?"

"The washer and dryer are free of charge in the monetary way but just note that they do come with having to spend time with your mother," Lorelai chimed in.

Rory nodded her head as she bypassed her mother and left the kitchen with the laundry room in mind as her destination. "You know giving someone something and requiring them to spend time with you sounds an awful lot like someone else I know."

Lorelai gasped as she followed close behind her daughter, "Don't you dare compare me to my mother. That's a way to get you voted off the favorite daughter list."

"You know you might not be able to use the favorite daughter thing for long, especially if this baby is a girl," Rory responded as she separated her dirty clothes in preparation to load them all into the washing machine.

"In that case, I'll use it while I can." Lorelai went to work helping Rory out with her laundry as they chatted. "So what's going on with you daughter of mine?"

"Let's see, school, school, and more school," Rory replied, placing her first load of laundry into the washing machine. "And on top of that even more school."

"Well it can't be too much school since I know that you spent most of last weekend playing kissy-face with your boyfriend."

"I take breaks for what's important."

"Not that I want to think about that but just as long as you're being careful," Lorelai responded. "But seriously, you're not working yourself too hard at school, right? You're doing okay?"

"Oh yeah," Rory replied quickly to assure her mother. "I'm doing fine. I'm not really complaining about the work because I do like most of it, just busy between the schoolwork and trying to write for the paper. Really though, college is great."

Lorelai nodded along as her daughter spoke, "Okay. Just checking in. There's no harm in dropping a class if everything is too much. I just want you to get the most out of your college experience."

"I know. But really Mom there's nothing to worry about, I'm great. School is going great."

Lorelai smiled, "That's what I like to hear kid."

With the first load of laundry going, the mother and daughter moved back to the kitchen where Lorelai put on a pot of coffee, the real stuff that Luke kept hidden from her since finding out about the pregnancy. When Rory pointed that out, Lorelai made sure to tell her that she had followed Luke's wishes over the past few days so it was perfectly acceptable to have a cup of the real coffee instead of the decaf that Luke insisted upon.

"I'll keep your coffee secret," Rory promised as she poured two cups of the precious liquid and passed one off to her mother before joining her at the small table in the kitchen. "So what about you? How's everything in the Hollow?"

"I'm good, your unborn sibling is healthy and growing and forcing me out of most of my clothes and into some of the new clothes I bought that aren't as cute as my clothes before," Lorelai started off. "Luke's his normal self, grumpy that he's doing something for the town although he was never even asked, he's just doing it because it needs to be done."

"Sounds about right."

"He went on a whole rant about not fixing the table that Taylor complained about since it would ruin The Festival of the Living Arts but that same night he was already out in his workshop working on the table," Lorelai informed her daughter. "Sometimes I think he just goes on rants because people expect him to."

Rory laughed. "I hardly think that's the case with Luke. You know he's just a softy who on the outside claims he never wants to do anything for this town but deep down he loves this place and will help out with festivals when it is needed."

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed. "Oh did I tell you that Sookie's mid-wife kicked me out of the house when I went to visit her the other day?"

"What did you do now?" Rory asked. "Why would a mid-wife kick you out?"

"Apparently I give off anti-mid-wife vibes," Lorelai explained. One of her hands moved down to her baby bump, "When she noticed that I was pregnant too, she asked if I had a mid-wife lined up and if I was going to follow in Sookie's footsteps and have the kid at home but when I said no, she got upset and told me that Sookie's baby didn't need to absorb my anti-mid-wife vibes because it would create a hostile environment for the baby. Before she kicked me out though she gave me her number in case I needed her as a mid-wife."

"Wow," Rory sighed. "She sounds..."

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed with her daughter even though she never finished her sentence. "I do love Sookie and support her with her mid-wife decision but this kid is coming out like you did."

"With you in a hospital throwing ice chips at the nurses?"

"Well they have no other use."

Lorelai savored the last little bit of her coffee and when Rory went back to fix herself a second cup of the caffeinated beverage, she made the switch from coffee to water which Rory couldn't help but tease her about since she had never witnessed her mother stopping after just one cup. When the timer buzzed letting Rory know that her laundry was done, she disappeared for a few minutes to prepare another load. When she returned to the kitchen, she found her mother saying goodbye to her own mother before setting the phone down with a confused look on her face.

"What's going on?" Rory asked, "Was that grandma?"

Lorelai nodded her head slowly, "Yep, that was definitely your grandma."

"Is something wrong?"

Lorelai shook her head, "Nothing's wrong," she assured her daughter, "Well at least not yet. I think that your grandma is up to something."

Rory sighed and began to search through the kitchen for something to snack on. "You always think Grandma is up to something."

"But you have to admit I'm right most of the time, like with your furniture at Yale. I knew that grandma had something to do with redoing your dorm room," Lorelai reminded her daughter.

"But you're also wrong some of the time," Rory pointed out. "Grandma is not always up to something."

"Okay, I'll let you have that one but this time I'm pretty sure she's up to something. She's called me like three times in the past few days just to check in. She doesn't do that. She maybe calls like once and then we just catch up at Friday Night dinner," Lorelai explained. "But with these phone calls, she keeps asking what we have done for the baby and what we haven't done or what we're planning on doing. Her questions are getting more specific every time she calls."

"Maybe she is just checking in," Rory pointed out. "You said that she said she wanted to be more involved in your life since finding out that she's going to be a grandmother again, maybe that's what she is trying to do."

"You give your grandmother the benefit of the doubt too much hon."

In between loads of laundry, the mother and daughter chatted incessantly until they were all caught up on things that they didn't get to discuss during their recent phone calls. Lorelai droned about how she couldn't wait for The Festival of the Living Arts to be over since that would hopefully be the end of Kirk going overboard for his role as Jesus and trying to gain followers throughout the town. Rory spoke of how having Paris as a roommate wasn't as bad as she originally thought it would be even though she still talked in her sleep and of how her relationship with Jess was still doing along just fine. Lorelai, happy that she had plenty of time to spend with her daughter, didn't even care that she actually ended up doing most of her daughter's laundry herself.

* * *

Later that night with Rory gone and Luke out in his workshop working on either their unborn child's crib or the table that he insisted he was not going to make, Lorelai sat curled up on the couch with the TV playing and serving as background noise while she went over some paperwork for the Inn that needed to be done. She adjusted the glasses on her face and made sure she was reading the numbers right since it seemed like every time she check in on the progress of the Inn that there was something else that needed to be done which meant in putting more money in than originally planned. After a few minutes, she decided that the paperwork could wait at least until the morning and she switched her choice of reading material over to a book of baby names.

In her book of baby names, she had a small slip of paper and a pen to make a list for when she found certain names that she liked. While she was pondering the fact over why some parents chose to name their babies ridiculous names, she heard the back door open and then the sound of Luke's boots clomping through the house soon after. She heard him make a stop in the kitchen before he walked into the living room and announced that he was done working for the night while simultaneously going on about why he agreed to make the table for the festival in the first place. Lorelai chose not to remind him that no one asked him and that he actually just volunteered. Instead she placed the baby name book down in her lap and reached out her arms, waving him towards the couch.

"Come on, sit," Lorelai called out to him and patted the spot on the couch next to her, "We can look through this book and see if we find any names that we like."

Luke shook his head, "I'm all sweaty. I need to shower first and then we can look through the book."

"You said that last time and then you fell asleep right after your shower, leaving me to look through the book alone," Lorelai reminded him. "It's going to be your fault if I end up naming this kid Lorelai too."

"I work hard, I was tired," Luke defended himself, he pointed his finger towards her, "And Lorelai is not an option for our baby. There are enough Lorelai's in this house."

Lorelai grinned, "Fine, no more Lorelai's. But for that to happen, you need to go through the names with me. I know it's early and we still have a while but still come and sit and look through the names with me." When Luke shook his head and mouthed the word shower while also heading towards the staircase, Lorelai poked out her bottom lip in a pout. "At least kiss me before you hop in the shower."

Luke moved back towards the couch where Lorelai sat and leaned down over her. His hand slid into her hair and held her close to him as he kissed her deeply. He pulled away only to have Lorelai pull him back and kiss him again.

"Better?" Luke asked once they finally broke apart.

"Mhmm, much better," Lorelai nodded her head as the smile grew ten-fold on her face. "Besides I think it's kind of hot."

Luke had a confused look on his face, "What are you talking about now?"

"You," Lorelai said grinning. "You outside in your workshop being all manly man and working with power tools, or you outside chopping wood with your shirt off," she pondered, lost in her own mind as she conjured up the very image of her husband chopping wood with his shirt off. An image that she was very grateful for at the moment.

"Let me stop you right there, I wasn't chopping wood and I had my shirt on the entire time."

"Shhh," Lorelai instructed him. "You're ruining the image I have of you in my mind." She reached out for him again, wound his arms around his neck, and pulled him back down to her level. "I think my man is very hot," she purred into his ear.

Luke flushed red from head-to-toe as her warm breath misted against his skin. While he didn't enjoy the mood swings that had Lorelai blaming him for things that he wasn't even aware that he had done, like accidentally suggesting that Sookie might be having twins, he had to admit there were certain perks to her pregnancy hormones. He knew that he should stick to his original stance of a shower since he had spent all afternoon working in his workshop but with the way that Lorelai was nipping at his neck, he knew that his original plan was quickly going out the window.

The baby name book eventually fell onto the floor and was forgotten about as it was kicked underneath the couch when Luke fell back onto the couch and pulled Lorelai into his lap where she continued her hormone-induced pursuance on him.

* * *

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows!**

 **Now prepare for Lorelai and Emily, with a healthy dose of pregnancy hormones.**

* * *

"Tell me again why you're dragging me along with you today," Luke said as he walked alongside Lorelai carrying the pastry box that she insisted they stop for before they headed over to Sookie and Jackson's house.

"You say dragging like I'm forcing you to come with me," Lorelai replied, casting a glance over at Luke. When he shot a look back that said that's exactly what she was doing, she sighed then continued on. "You're the one that wanted to go with the Inn with me today and check in with Tom on construction so that means you get to accompany me to my best friend's house to check in on her and her very cute, just a week old baby."

"You said you were meeting Sookie and Michel here for a business meeting," Luke said, reminding his wife of their conversation earlier this morning as they discussed what their days looked like.

Lorelai nodded, "Right this is a business meeting. Hence the reason we went by the Inn first and stopped by Weston's for pastries. I had to check up on the Inn so I can report back to Sookie and Michel and a business meeting is not a business meeting without pastries."

Luke didn't bother questioning why the pastries had to come from Weston's instead of a selection from the diner. "You know that I do have my own business to run, the diner," he reminded his wife as they came to a stop on the sidewalk in front of Sookie and Jackson's house.

"Yes but how is Davey going to get to know his Uncle Luke if he doesn't stop by for a visit every now and then?" Lorelai questioned. She pulled on the sleeve of his jacket, dragging him along as she slowly started to walk backwards. "You only have to stay for a few minutes to fulfill your husbandly duties and then you're free to go to the diner. Besides Davey is a cute baby, what's not to love?"

Luke felt he could list off several reasons on what's not to love about babies but he remembered that he was due to have a baby next year and he would definitely have to deal with the reasons why people didn't like kids. But that would be different, because that would his and Lorelai's kid which he couldn't be happier about. He supposed that Sookie and Jackson's baby wasn't all that bad. Like Lorelai said several times, he was cute.

Lorelai turned away from Luke to walk up the porch steps only to see that Michel was sitting in a wooden chair right outside the open door to her friend's house. She stopped short of walking in the open door and turned her attention to Michel. Before she could ask Michel is Sookie was even home for the business meeting they scheduled for this meeting, Michel spoke up.

"This is supposed to be a business meeting Lorelai, what is your husband doing here?"

"He's just here for a minutes minutes," Lorelai informed him. "Why are you here? Aren't they home?"

"We're home," came a voice that was immediately recognized Sookie's. "Lorelai, come on in. Michel's not welcome."

"Aw, why you are not welcome?" Lorelai asked.

Instead of answering for himself, Sookie's voice once again rang out answering the question. "He sneezed!"

"Five days ago," Michel defended himself which just so happened to start an argument between two out of three business partners for the Inn.

"I can't take a chance with the baby!"

"It's a business meeting. The baby should not attend."

"He's a week old. What should he do, take in a movie?"

"I got dust up my nose. It made me sneeze. I am not sick."

Luke placed his free hand on the small of Lorelai's back and began to guide her inside Sookie's house and away from Michel, "If he's sick, you don't need to be around him either. You don't need to get sick, it might not be good for the baby."

"Already so protective," Lorelai teased, ignoring Michel's shout from outside that he wasn't sick and it really was just dust in his nose that made him sneeze.

"You brought Luke?" Sookie asked as the couple entered the living room where she sat holding Davey.

"Oh well he just couldn't stay away from this little cutie," Lorelai indicated as she joined Sookie on the couch. She immediately launched into baby talk, cooing and smiling at the swaddled bundle in her friend's arms. After groans outside from Michel who found the baby talk painful, Lorelai gestured to Davey. "May I?"

"Of course," Sookie answered, placing her baby gently in her friend's arms.

Lorelai smiled at the baby and cradled him close to her chest. She carefully stood up from the couch and nestled the baby in her arms as she walked over to where Luke stood. Once he set down the pastry box in his hand, per Lorelai's suggestion, she stood beside him and made sure to angle Davey towards him in the slightest way.

"And now we have to say hey to Uncle Luke," Lorelai spoke to the baby who looked up at her wide-eyed. "Don't worry, he may come off as a grump but really he's just a big teddy bear and you like teddy bears, don't you?"

Luke sighed, "Lorelai."

"Oh come on Mr. Grumpy, say hey to Davey before he gets upset that his uncle is ignoring him," Lorelai replied, nudging Luke in the side with her elbow.

Lorelai smiled as her husband began to interact with the baby in her arms, still slightly awkward and unsure of exactly how to speak to a baby since he definitely wasn't going the baby talk route. Still she enjoyed watching him with Davey, thinking of the little one of their own that they would have in a few months and just how sure she was that Luke would fit the fatherhood role well even though she knew some of his concerns about not knowing how to be a father. After a few minutes, Luke said that he really did have to leave and get to the diner in time for the lunch rush so Lorelai kissed his cheek before she laid Davey in his bassinet, as instructed by Sookie, then she took a seat in the chair opposite of the couch on which Sookie sat.

"So shall we actually get down to business?" Lorelai asked as she passed Sookie a pastry from the box before retrieving one for herself and then offering Michel one who refused it since it would only make him appear pathetic and sad as he ate the pastry all alone on the front porch.

"That is the reason that you are here," Sookie replied, only to smile and then switch the subject. "So have you and Luke thought of any baby names?"

Lorelai shook her head, "Nope. We tried to go over names the other night but we were….well we got distracted," she said, the grin on her face giving her away.

"Ag pregnancy hormone sex, I remember those days," Sookie said fondly to which Michel let them both know he was still there and didn't need to hear this part of their conversation.

"Okay, okay," Lorelai said loud enough for Michel to hear, "We'll no longer discuss our sex lives, at least not while you're around. We actually do have some business to go over."

With that Lorelai laid out the latest happenings with the Inn, everything that she had yet to go over with Sookie in the past couple of weeks since her friend was concerned with her pregnancy and then the birth of her healthy baby boy. She let them know that everything was still on schedule, as they had planned it from the beginning, and that while some things were a little more expensive than originally planned that it was all being handled and they weren't in trouble. She decided to keep it to herself that the timing of the Inn's scheduled opening just so happened to be within a few weeks of her scheduled due date, that would only make Sookie worry and Michel complain about going into business with two pregnant women. It wasn't long into their meeting, just a few minutes that Sookie's mid-wife and now lactation specialist, Bruce, interrupted.

"Ah, the friend that doesn't agree with home births," Bruce stated in her brusque manner, she stared at Lorelai.

"I never said that I didn't agree with them, I supported Sookie," Lorelai said in her own defense.

"Yet, you specifically said that you didn't want a home birth for your child," Bruce replied to which Lorelai tried to reply but only ended up speechless and trying to turn to Sookie for help who couldn't think of anything to say either. "Never mind. Sookie it's time to feed."

"And that's my cue to leave," Lorelai said as she stood up from the couch. "Bye hon," she smiled towards Sookie before leaning over the bassinet where Davey lay.

"No baby talk," Bruce reminded Lorelai, startling her for just a moment.

"Goodbye Mr. Belleville," Lorelai nodded curtly towards Davey earning a giggle from Sookie and what she was sure was a withering death glare from Bruce.

Before her life choices could be criticized anymore by Bruce, it was starting to remind her too much of her mother who felt the need to have her say constantly even though Lorelai disagreed with most of it, she quickly exited the house. She tried and failed to encourage Michel to go and have lunch with her at the diner but since he didn't eat diner food, she ended up heading towards Luke's all alone.

* * *

Lorelai sat at the diner counter, leafing through her book of baby names while picking at the remnants of the turkey sandwich and salad that she ordered for lunch. Or really the turkey sandwich she ordered with a side of fries until Luke caught wind of her order and switched the fries for a salad, all for the health of their growing unborn child. She wouldn't admit it to him but she didn't mind the switch all that much because the salad seemed to hit the spot.

"Ooh hey should we choose a name that begins with L?" Lorelai perked up as Luke walked past her to serve other customers.

Luke freshened up a few cups of coffees of diner patrons that sat at the counter before he made his way back to Lorelai, "What? Why does it have to be L?"

"Because we're Lorelai and Luke, L and L, same initials," Lorelai replied. "Also Rory is technically an L since she is a Lorelai, so I was thinking should we name our child something that starts with an L? Because that would definitely narrow down the names we could choose."

Luke blew out a breath then leaned down on the counter beside Lorelai and prepared himself for the explanation that was going to come from what he was about to say, "I still don't understand why it would have to start with an L if our names start with an L."

Lorelai sighed as if the answer should have been obvious. "Because what if the baby grows up feeling left out because his or her name doesn't begin with an L like their parents? Then the whole teenage rebellion thing starts and we'll start to wonder where we went wrong as parents. After some time and serious thought we'll trace it back to the day we picked out the name and realize that his or her name didn't start with an L and that's the reason our kid hates us."

"I can guarantee you that is not going to happen, our child is not going to hate us Lorelai," Luke assured his wife who looked on the verge of tears at the very thought. He placed his hand over hers, "I'm serious, none of that is going to happen."

Lorelai stayed silent for a moment, staring down at the counter in front of her. Then she laughed and lifted her eyes to meet Luke, wiping at a tear that managed to roll down her face. "That idea does seem pretty silly, doesn't it?" She gave a shake of her head, "Stupid hormones."

Luke chuckled then gently squeezed her hand, "I won't mention that to anyone else. Pie?"

"Apple please."

"Got it."

Luke cleared away Lorelai's lunch plates now that she indicated she was completely done and ready for dessert before he moved to the opposite end of the counter where the pies were kept. He just lifted the top off the container that held the apple pie, doing his best to ignore Kirk who was conveniently seated at that end of the counter, when the man in question decided to speak.

"I couldn't help but overhear you and Lorelai talking about baby names," Kirk said, "And I may have a suggestion."

Luke stopped what he was doing because he just had to ask although he would wager that he already knew the answer, "What is it Kirk?"

"Kirk Jr.," Kirk said proudly.

Luke shook his head, "No, that's not happening. Not in a million years."

"Someone has to carry own my family name," Kirk argued.

Luke went to correct Kirk but quickly realized it wasn't worth the fight, he would rather find a different way out of the conversation. "Don't you think you should save that in case you find a woman to have kids with? If you find a woman?"

"I do have a girlfriend Luke," Kirk curtly reminded the diner man. "You remember, her name is LuLu."

"I know Kirk," Luke said as he went back to getting Lorelai's dessert before she got a little antsy over the fact that her pie wasn't coming fast enough. "We all know you have a girlfriend."

"She's beautiful but I don't know if she wants kids, I mean we haven't even talked about that yet but I do know..."

Luke held his hand up to interrupt Kirk now that the slice of pie was plated, "Kirk, just stop, can't talk right now. I have a diner to run."

Luke turned away from Kirk and made his way back to Lorelai who was currently chatting away on her cell-phone to who he assumed to be Rory since she used the term 'sweets,' and 'loinfruit,' all within two seconds of each other. He snapped his fingers to get her attention then pointed out the no cell-phone sign which she ignored as usual.

"No that's just Luke telling me to get off my phone," Lorelai spoke into her phone. "Now what's going on at home?"

Luke stopped and watched as Lorelai nodded along to whatever Rory was saying, watching her face carefully for any change in expression that would give a clue as to what they were talking about. Her expression remained unreadable though until she snapped her phone shut, slid it into her purse, and stood up from the stool.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked worriedly, "Is it Rory? Something wrong with Rory?"

Lorelai shook her head, "No, Rory's fine, she's just fine. It's my mother. It's always my mother. I knew that she was up to something. And she's definitely up to something now," she said angrily.

"What's going on?"

"Apparently my mother is moving in with us," Lorelai answered. When she saw Luke's confused expression, she decided to continue on. "I don't know, all I heard was Emily, moving truck, and furniture. Nothing good can come from those three words all in a sentence together."

Luke set down the plate that held the slice of apple pie, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No hon," Lorelai replied as she leaned across the counter to lightly peck his lips, already careful of her newly formed baby bump and the possible bumping in with the counter, "You stay here. I can handle my mother."

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

Luke knew that whatever it was that it was sure to play out like many Friday Night dinners that ended with Lorelai stopping by the diner for a quick pick-me-up that usually involved coffee and pie. A hormone-addled Lorelai dealing with an Emily that came along with a moving truck, some mysterious furniture, and an idea that Lorelai was sure to disagree with was a combination that would definitely end with Lorelai needing a comfort food.

"Call me if you need me, I can leave the diner," Luke told his wife before she had a chance to leave. He gestured to the pie she had yet to eat. "I'll box this up along with the rest of the pie and bring it home for later."

Lorelai grinned, "You know me well babe. See ya at home."

Lorelai made it home in record time. Sure enough from the fragments that she picked up from Rory, there was a moving truck parked out in front of her house. She didn't even bother peeking into the back of the truck to see whatever her mother had planned. Instead she climbed out of her jeep and immediately headed inside. The smell of Chanel No. 5 greeted her as she entered the house, letting her know for a fact that her mother was indeed there and definitely up to something.

Lorelai looked around downstairs for her mother or Rory or any new furniture she may have gained from the visit yet she saw nothing that she sought out. Her mother's voice as well as her daughter's and that of a man she didn't recognize drifted from upstairs along with the sound of someone moving furniture. She threw her purse and keys down onto the couch and made a beeline for the stairs. The first thing she heard clearly when she got upstairs was her daughter's voice followed by her mother's.

"Grandma, I don't think this is a good idea. Mom's not going to like this. You should have checked with her first."

"Rory, if I would have checked with your mother first, I would have ruined the surprise. I'm doing this for your mother. Now tell me, do you like this layout or should we try something different?"

"Grandma..."

Lorelai stopped in the doorway of the room she and Luke had chosen as the nursery, yet had not gotten around to painting it despite buying the paint for the room, only to find that the paint didn't seem necessary since the room now resembled almost every single room at her parent's house. Expensive, completely over-done, and every inch of the room covered in furniture and décor that was clearly picked out by the one and only Emily Gilmore, always known as not her style and nothing she would ever choose to be in her house.

Lorelai crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "What's going on here?"

"Lorelai." Emily turned at the sound of her daughter's voice. "What are you doing here? I didn't think you would be home."

Lorelai ignored her mother's questions as she walked into the room, "What's going on here?" She took a moment to look around the room that was now filled what looked like every item from a high-end store that catered to expecting mothers. "What is all of this?"

"Well you weren't supposed to see it like this, it is hardly put together right now. I still have a lot of work to do, organizing things and maybe moving things around, I'm not sure I like how everything is arranged right now," Emily explained while she walked around the room, she came to a stop in front of Lorelai but wasn't focused on her daughter. "Perhaps if I..." and with that her mother was off and buzzing around the room once more.

Lorelai watched while her mother moved around the room and chatted with two different men whom she figured was hired by her mother to help move the furniture. She watched as her mother asked him to move what looked to be a very expensive crib across the room. Besides the crib, which was obviously for a baby, the room resembled that of something which her mother would love with a few trinkets and items that looked like antiques that had no business in a nursery. Oddly enough it reminded her of the time she was pregnant with Rory and found that her mother managed to decorate a nursery in one day and gave her instructions not to move anything in the room since it was exactly how she liked it and supposedly perfectly set up for a nursery.

"Mom, just stop," Lorelai instructed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I was going to have this as surprise for you, for the baby," Emily replied. She spread her arms and gestured to the room around her, "This is my gift to you Lorelai. Your father and I wanted to do something special so I decided that I could decorate the nursery for you."

Lorelai turned to Rory who very smartly stood next to the open door to the nursery. "Rory, I need to talk to my mother."

"But Mom…."

Lorelai cut her daughter off, "It's fine Rory, I just need to talk to my mother. Can you go downstairs?"

Rory sighed, "Mom."

"Rory, seriously I'll be fine. Just go downstairs or go see Jess or something, I just need to talk to my mother," Lorelai replied, staring at her daughter until Rory backed out of the room and left.

"What's going on?" Emily asked once Rory left the room. "Do you not like the room?"

"No, I don't like the room," Lorelai answered angrily. "What made you think that you could come into my house and do any of this?"

Emily looked over at the two movers that still remained in the room, they had stopped moving the furniture as instructed and were now backed up against the wall. "If you two would excuse us, I need to speak with my daughter about something," she said with a look that made it clear that they were the ones that needed to leave the room not her and Lorelai.

"Don't go too far," Lorelai called out before the men had a chance to make it out of the room. "All of this is going back where it came from."

Emily straightened and focused back on her daughter when the men left the room, "What do you mean all of this is going back? This is the thank you that I get from trying to do something nice for you?"

"What made you think that I would like any of this?" Lorelai shot back, answering her mother's question with another question.

"Lorelai, I handpicked everything here," Emily stated. "Everything here is top of the line. I even hired a designer to help me with the latest nursery trends. She's had some very prominent past employers."

"Like who, The Queen of England?" Lorelai quipped.

"You and your jokes Lorelai, I swear," Emily said with a shake of her head.

"Take all of this back," Lorelai ordered. "I do not want any of this. I want this room emptied out. I mean completely emptied out, I don't even want to know that anything was in here."

"Why can't you just for once accept something that I offer you Lorelai?" Emily questioned. "I wanted to do something nice for you, for my grandchild and this is how you're going to act?"

"You didn't do this for me! Or for your grandchild," Lorelai argued, her hand coming down to rest of her small bump protectively. "You did all of this for you!"

"Don't be ridiculous Lorelai, I'm not the one having a child here, you are. I just wanted to do what was best for my grandchild, I wanted him or her to have the very best nursery," Emily replied.

Lorelai shook her head, "No, no, you didn't. You didn't do this for anyone else but yourself. Because if this was for me or for anyone else besides yourself, the room would not look like this!"

"You don't like the way the room looks? What's wrong with it?"

Lorelai scoffed, "Might be a shorter list if I told you what wasn't wrong with it."

Emily's hand went to her hips. "And what are you trying to say Lorelai?"

"I'm trying to say that all of this in a nursery is ridiculous," Lorelai argued. She moved across the room to where a dressed was placed against the wall and topped with a few trinkets that looked too expensive and slightly dangerous for a baby to play with. "A porcelain giraffe? Really?"

"Rory had one just like it in her nursery," Emily replied.

Lorelai nodded her head, "Oh trust me, I remember. I also remember you getting angry and trying to ground me when Rory accidentally knocked it off the shelf and broke it while I held her."

"It was very expensive and purely for decoration."

"Exactly my point!" Lorelai groaned. "Most of the things you put in the nursery, she couldn't touch or play with or anything because it was all expensive and purely for decoration. It was ridiculous, just like this."

"Excuse me then for trying to do something nice for my daughter and grandchild," Emily shot back. "You can never appreciate anything that I do for you. You never have!"

Lorelai brought her hand up to rub at her temples, she stared down at the ground. "Get out."

"Excuse me?"

Lorelai lifted her eyes to meet her mother's, "You heard me, I said get out."

"I am your mother, you cannot talk to me like that."

"This is my house, I can say whatever I please in it. Now get the hell out of my house."

"You do remember that your father and I bought you this house, don't you?" Emily asked.

"Oh I remember," Lorelai sighed. "You cannot use that excuse as the motivation to come in here and change whatever the hell you want. My name as well as Luke's are signed on the papers for the house, so this is my house and I need you to leave."

Emily went to say something else, only to be interrupted by Luke whom neither of the women noticed in the doorway of the room.

"Lorelai's right, you need to leave now," Luke stated firmly.

"You cannot speak to me like that," Emily replied, shocked at the tone of his voice.

Luke walked into the room, his hand going to the small of Lorelai's back, "When you are in my house and upsetting my wife, I can speak to you like that. I respect you and Richard as Lorelai's parents but you are not coming to come in here and upset Lorelai like this. She is already doing so much and she doesn't need anymore stress right now."

For once, Emily Gilmore was speechless. She huffed before she turned and marched out of the room, her ordering the movers around could be heard from downstairs. Lorelai let her shoulders droop as she leaned into her husband's chest, seeking the comfort and warmth she needed at the moment. He pulled her as close to him as possible, placed a kiss on top of her head and then stroked her hair.

"You okay?" Luke whispered in her ear.

Lorelai pulled away from him, nodding her head and wiping at her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Well not long after you left, Rory came by the diner and told me what was going on. She said that you seemed really upset at Emily. I know that you said you could handle Emily on your own, and I know that you can, but I wanted to make sure everything was okay and that you weren't getting too upset," Luke said. His hand slipped down to her baby bump, "That's not good for the baby."

"I know, it's just my mother, she can be just so…." Lorelai practically growled towards the end of her sentence.

Luke pulled Lorelai close to him again, "I know." He took that time to take in the room again, "God, I see why you weren't happy about this. Who did she think this was for, the Queen of England?"

Lorelai gently pulled away from Luke. "Apparently doing a replica of Rory's nursery when she was little seemed like a good idea to my mother. I hated that nursery. I had no part in it. Rory couldn't play with anything in the room. It was ridiculous."

"What else?" Luke asked.

Lorelai eyed the porcelain giraffe again, "Rory had that same giraffe in her room. I was holding her one day and she accidentally knocked it off the shelf. When I tried to explain to my mom what happened, she ended up yelling at me and blaming me for letting Rory play with the things in the nursery that a baby was supposed to play with. It wasn't long after that when I left."

Luke walked over to where the porcelain giraffe set and happened to 'accidentally' knock it off the dresser and onto the floor where it shattered into a few dozen pieces which earned him a laugh and then a shriek from his wife.

"Luke, she's going to flip. She said it was very expensive."

"Don't worry about it, I'll take the blame. I'll just say that I went to move a few things and that the giraffe had an accident," Luke replied. "I'll take care of it."

Lorelai laughed again and leaned into kiss him. "And you say I'm the crazy one."

Luke pecked her lips. "You've rubbed off on me."

"Dirty!"

Lorelai leaned back into his embrace, nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck. She relaxed against him and thanked him silently for showing up when he did because she was about to completely lose it with her mother. Yes, the hormones were partly to blame for her reaction but she also really did just hate the way her mother designed the room. The decoration of the nursery was something that she and Luke were doing together. And they already were, with the picking out of the paint colors and Luke building their baby's crib. It was not something her mother was supposed to do as a surprise.

Luke pressed a kiss to her temple, "There's pie downstairs."

Lorelai hugged him before she pulled away with a grin on her face, "My three favorite words." She took his hand in hers. "Lead the way babe."

* * *

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer in first chapter.**

 **Thanks for the reviews/follows/favorites!**

* * *

Lorelai pulled her coat tighter against her to shield herself against the chilly November air as she walked around the grounds of what was soon to be the newly renovated Dragonfly Inn. She was just glad that her favorite pink coat still fit and buttoned over her growing baby bump since it seemed like she had to switch more and more of her favorite outfits lately since they refused to stretch over her baby bump and still be comfortable. Though with her coat wrapped around her body, a person could barely tell that she was pregnant because it did a good job of hiding it, not that she really minded if they could tell or not because she was happy with her pregnancy.

As much as she was happy with her pregnancy, she was still not happy over that little stunt her mother pulled just a few days ago. As usual, in her traditional Lorelai way, to show that she was unhappy with her mother, she simply avoided her phone calls to the best of her ability. The calls either went straight to her voice-mail or were picked up by the answering machine. One phone call did get through when Emily actually made a call to the diner but that was intercepted by Luke who answered the question of what happened to the porcelain giraffe that was suddenly missing from the inventory of everything Emily handpicked out for her grandchild's nursery. He answered the question the way that he promised Lorelai that he would before he reported that he had a business to run and couldn't spend all day taking personal phone calls. Even though he knew Lorelai had the right to be mad, since he was also mad about the invasion of privacy that came along with Emily and her act of kindness and the way that she upset Lorelai, he simply reminded her that she couldn't shut her mother out forever.

Lorelai never planned to shut her mother out forever, especially since she and Luke agreed to host Thanksgiving dinner at their house this year which happened to be next week, but she could simply not speak to her mother for a few days. She didn't feel that she was at all in the wrong with the way she reacted to her mother's so called 'gift' but she knew that Hell would have to freeze over for Emily Gilmore to apologize for her actions. The freeze-out would only last a few more days most likely and then they would talk again. Thanksgiving dinner probably being catalyst for their relationship to get back to whatever it was before.

Lorelai fumbled with the pocket on her coat when her phone began to ring. When she managed to get the phone out of her pocket, it slid right out of her gloved hand and landed in a spot of dead grass where it continued to ring. She groaned when she realized that meant she would have to bend over to pick up the phone which she recently discovered what a bit harder to do because of her growing belly. She could still do it, it just took more work. Work that she didn't always like putting forth.

She looked around the grounds of the Inn and couldn't find any of the workers on Tom's crew that could possibly help her pick up her phone. She figured they were all working inside or either on a break. Since no one was around to help her and her phone continued to ring, she tried to bend over to pick it up. The retrieval of her phone from the ground took a few minutes, more than she was willing to admit to anyone. By the time she had her phone in her hand, the phone had stopped ringing and alerted her that she had a missed call. She didn't recognize the number but decided to call it back since she couldn't possibly remember all the numbers of possible vendors she had at the moment for the Inn. She just hoped that it wasn't her mother trying to trick her by using a different number because she just wasn't ready to talk to her.

When the voice on the other end answered, Lorelai recognized of that as her father's. Even though she was currently shutting her mother out, she figured she could still talk to him. "Hey dad," she said into the phone. "This is a different number, where are you calling from?"

"This has always been my office number Lorelai," Richard replied. "I know I don't usually call you from this number but you should have it in case of emergencies."

"Right, because we both know I have a lot of business-related emergencies," Lorelai quipped. She ignored her father's comment after she spoke and continued. "You never call just to chat or fuss at me for not having our number so what's going on? Why the call?"

"Don't play the fool Lorelai, you know what I am calling," Richard said sternly. "I wanted to talk with you about your mother."

Lorelai inwardly sighed and didn't verbally reply. Her father didn't seem to mind because she figured that he had a lot that he wanted to say. She thought about just hanging up the phone but ultimately decided against it.

"The way that you and Luke treated your mother when she was just trying to do something nice for you was unacceptable. You have no idea how upset you made her by not only refusing her gift but kicking her out of your house after yelling at her."

"Trying to do something nice for me?" Lorelai asked once her father paused for a brief moment. "She completely took over something that was supposed to be for the parents of the child to do together. Last I checked I was the one carrying this child and not her."

"Don't be ridiculous Lorelai, it's not as if she was trying to take over everything," Richard replied. "She was simply offering you a gift, something that she thought might take the pressure off of you since you're already doing so much with the Inn and preparing for a baby. She just wanted to help out and you refused her once again."

"I'm not being ridiculous Dad. I know my ridiculousness and this isn't it," Lorelai defended herself. "She wasn't helping me out, she was doing what she wanted like she always does. She didn't consider what I wanted because if she did, she would know that it wasn't that. That nursery was what's ridiculous."

Richard blew out a harsh breath and Lorelai could imagine him sitting behind his desk, slowly getting angry with her as happened a few times before. "Whether you believe it or not, your mother was trying to help you out. But you refused her help and now you have upset her."

Lorelai rolled her eyes even though she was on the phone and knew he couldn't see it. "So it doesn't matter that she upset me? That she just barged into my house without me not knowing about it and completely changed something that was my responsibility as my child's mother? Something that Luke and I are already working on?"

"Don't be so dramatic Lorelai."

"I'm not," Lorelai practically screeched. She took a few deep breaths to calm down. "I never meant to upset her but what she did was out of line. She had no right."

"Your mother just wants to make sure that she's going to be a part of this child's life. You know that you really hurt her with what happened when you were younger," Richard replied, a little calmer this time around.

"God," Lorelai sighed. "Right back to this again because we can't have an argument without going back to what happened when I was a teenager. You or mom will never understand it, but it is what was best for me at the time."

"You kept that girl from us."

"That girl has a name and her name is Rory and she's your beloved grand-daughter," Lorelai quickly corrected. "I know what happened I was there but that's not what is going to happen this time around. Mom knows that you are both going to be a part of this child's life."

"Maybe you need to make sure that your mother knows that," Richard pointed out. "Stop ignoring her calls and apologize to her."

"Why should I be the one to apologize?" Lorelai questioned. "She should apologize to me for doing something that she had to have known that I wouldn't like. I don't think I need to be the one that apologizes here."

"You heard me Lorelai."

Lorelai didn't have a chance to say anything else before the dial-tone sounded in her ear, signaling that her father already hung up. She was upset and slightly angry and wanted to throw her phone to express that but then she remembered that throwing her phone meant she would have to pick it up and then she would have to fight with bending over to pick it up again. Deciding it wasn't worth the effort, she slid her phone back into her coat pocket and headed towards her jeep.

* * *

"Your father said what?" Luke asked as he poured what Lorelai described as a 'very well deserved cup of real coffee and not that decaf crap since she stupidly decided to talk with her father on the phone.'

"That I should be the one to apologize," Lorelai explained again since her first explanation was rushed and interspersed with demands of real coffee the moment that she entered the diner. "Which I don't think I should since I didn't do anything wrong here!"

"You did yell at your mother and then kick her out of your house," Luke reminded his wife.

"You did too!" Lorelai accused. "I'm the mother of your child, you're supposed to be on my side here."

"And I am, I'm on your side," Luke replied. To further show his point, he set the coffee pot aside and took her now glove-less hand in his. "I was just stating the facts."

"And what are you going to state next? That you agree with my father?" Lorelai inquired as she stubbornly pulled her hand away from his. "Are you two in cahoots now?"

"What? No, your father and I are not in cahoots."

"Well it sounds like your in cahoots with him considering that's almost exactly what he said to me on the phone," Lorelai shot back, drawing the attention of the more nosy people in the diner. She could practically feel Miss Patty watching her every move and mentally noting every word just in case this was worthy of town gossip. "Is this something the two of you came up with to make me talk with my mother again? Pin the blame for this on me so I'll apologize when really she's the one that needs to apologize."

"Okay, now you're just being…"

Lorelai interrupted him, "Dramatic, ridiculous? Since you're in cahoots with my father you might as well use the same words that he did to describe me."

"I was going to go with crazy," Luke noted, "But ridiculous could work too."

Lorelai pointed an accusatory finger at him. "So you are in cahoots with my father."

Luke decided to ignore that comment, replying to it would just mean that they would argue this in circles for who knows how long and just give the town something else to talk to death about. He wasn't interested in either of those options. Plus he also knew that this ridiculous argument, and yes it was ridiculous, came from a wonderful place that was fueled by pregnancy hormones. Sometimes those hormones worked out in the best way possible for the both of them and other times, it was like this; arguing over something that would most likely never be argued about in the middle of the diner. Then there was also the times when he caught Lorelai crying over something like him killing a spider since he knew she was scared of them because maybe the spider had a family somewhere that missed him. Most days weren't that crazy, they were without huge mood swings caused by hormones, but some days she just had an extra dose of crazy added to the kookiness that just came so naturally to her. This was turning out to be one of those days.

Luke adjusted the backwards baseball cap on his head as a distraction to not say something else that would just add to the argument, instead he asked, "Do you want anything to go with your coffee?"

"You're not even going to deny it?" Lorelai asked, she stared her husband down trying to prompt an answer from him.

"Again I ask, do you want anything to go with your coffee?"

Lorelai let her shoulders slump. Out of pure stubbornness, she picked up her coffee cup and savored a few, long, drawn-out sips before she replied to Luke who she just knew would wait right there in front of her for an answer. "I want a doughnut. Chocolate with sprinkles. And a cinnamon one."

Luke grumbled something under his breath as he walked away and Lorelai wasn't sure of what he said exactly but she knew she heard the word crazy again. She really thought about just leaving the diner to get away from Luke who she just argued with and for some reason, that she couldn't quite pinpoint, was still mad at but then her two doughnuts appeared in front of her so she had a good enough reason to stay. At least for right now.

Instead of eating her doughnuts in silence at the counter, Lorelai decided to join Miss Patty at her table. The older woman was more than happy to entertain her with all the tales of the latest gossip in town and surrounding towns while also trying to get the scoop was what was going on between the expectant couple. Lorelai assured her that everything was fine, because everything was fine, it was just an off day between the two of them and that coupled with other annoyances in her life just happened to lead to a little tension between the couple. Miss Patty had more questions to ask but was quickly sidetracked when Babette busted into the diner with some juicy news of some couple that Lorelai wasn't even sure she knew. When she noticed that her doughnuts were nothing more than crumbs now, she grabbed her plate and carried it to the end of the counter where she met Luke.

"Hey," Lorelai said quietly as she approached.

"Finished?" Luke asked and Lorelai nodded her head in response prompting him to take her empty plate and deposit in the kitchen before he came to stand in front of her. "Am I still picking you up at home for the doctor's appointment?"

Lorelai nodded her head, "Yep. Same answer as this morning."

Since she seemed calmer than earlier and a little less likely to suggest that he was in cahoots with her father, Luke closed the distance in between them to whisper in her ear, "Everything okay?"

Lorelai pulled back just enough for him to be able to see the small smile on her face as she nodded her head, "Yeah, I think I'm just going to head home and take a nap before our appointment." She leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "See ya later babe."

* * *

Lorelai leaned against Luke's side as they left the obstetrician's office after the latest doctor's appointment; the latest scans of their baby were tucked safely away in Lorelai's purse. As they walked back out to Luke's truck, she took his hand in hers and intertwined their fingers. Everything had gone smoothly at their doctor's appointment, both Lorelai and the baby were healthy and the pregnancy was right on track so there was nothing to worry about. She was informed that while it was still just a tad bit too early at the stage that she was currently at, that at their next appointment they should be able to find out the sex of the baby, if they so desired.

"You do want to find out the sex, don't you?" Lorelai asked as they approached the familiar green truck. "Or are you going to be like Jackson and go old-school where you don't know that Davey is a Davey until I give birth? Go on throughout the pregnancy thinking that Davey might just be a Colgate, while I know the truth because I definitely want to find out."

"Colgate?" Luke questioned before adding on, "We're not naming our child after a toothpaste."

"It was after Jackson's great-grandmother," Lorelai informed her husband as he opened up the passenger side door and helped her into the truck. "But yes I agree, no toothpaste names for our baby."

Luke shut the passenger side door before walking around the truck and climbing in behind the wheel. He stopped before cranking up the truck and said, "I want to know. I don't want to wait."

"Good," Lorelai said with a smile. "Because I don't know how Sookie kept that a secret, I probably wouldn't be able to keep that from you. I would definitely let it slip at some point."

"You're not wrong," Luke replied just to tease her. "I want to know."

"Good."

A silence fell between the couple as Luke started to back out of the parking space and head towards the exit of the parking lot. After going home and taking a nap earlier, that almost made her late for the doctor's appointment, Lorelai felt much better. She was still a little upset over the phone call she had with her father since he scolded her over what happened with her mother but didn't seem to realize how her mother was actually the one in the wrong in this situation but she did realize that she was no longer angry at Luke because their argument earlier was ridiculous. Just as Luke said she was acting, crazy fit as well.

"Luke," Lorelai called softly. Her hand went to rest on his leg as she continued on. "I'm sorry for earlier, I was just upset and angry at my father for that phone call and I was actually really tired. I didn't realize how tired until I actually laid down. But I didn't mean to start an argument or to suggest that you were in cahoots with my father. I know that's..."

"Crazy," Luke finished her sentence which earned him a smile from his wife along with a nod of agreement. He kept one hand on the wheel and placed one hand over hers, "It's okay, you don't have to apologize."

"No, I do," Lorelai insisted. "It wasn't your fault that I was upset. What my father said just got under my skin and I took some of it out on you. But after my nap, I realized that maybe some of that happened because I was tired."

"I understand," Luke replied. He put both hands back on the wheel. "I don't agree with what your mother did either but you know you really can't shut her out forever."

Lorelai sighed. "I know. We'll talk eventually. We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, so we're bound to talk there."

"Can't wait," Luke deadpanned, keeping his eyes on the road. "You hungry?"

"Starving is more like it," Lorelai exaggerated. "Since someone refused to stop at a number of places we passed on the way to the doctor's office," she said pointedly.

"We were already running late, we would have been even later if we would have stopped for food," Luke argued, not really mad just stating his case.

"So? They still made us wait forever in that waiting room before we were finally called back and then when we were called back we would to wait even longer for someone to come into the room to check in on baby," Lorelai pointed out. "So we had plenty of time to stop for food."

"You ate while we waited anyways. You had those cookies in your purse and who knows how long those have been in there, they were only crumbs."

"Delicious crumbs."

Luke took a quick glance over at Lorelai before he focused his eyes back on the road, "Sniffy's okay?"

"Sounds perfect babe."

The ride to Sniffy's was filled with chatter, mainly from Lorelai, on what still needed to be done to prepare for the arrival of their baby. Luke reminded her that he was indeed going to paint the nursery on his next full day off from the diner which just so happened to be a couple of days away. That would be one less thing that needed to be done. One thing that was on the list of things that needed to be done, at the very top of the list actually, was picking a name. Both Luke and Lorelai had suggested a few names to one another but their choices were quickly vetoed by the other one. Which was mainly Luke vetoing Lorelai's choices since she seemed to come up with most of the names. Their name choosing debate started up again and lasted them until they reached the restaurant.

"You veto all my great names," Lorelai complained at they entered the restaurant.

Luke shook his head then began to help her out of her coat. "No, I veto all your crazy names," he replied, hanging her coat up on the coat rack beside the entrance.

"My name suggestions aren't crazy."

"Whatever you say." Luke hung up his coat up and turned around just in time to find that Maisy had noticed their arrival and was welcoming them with open arms while also scolding Luke for not calling beforehand, as he usually did when he didn't have a standing reservation with them.

"I promise next time we come for dinner, I'll call before," Luke said, unwrapping his arms from the older woman as she pulled away.

"Oh no, don't worry about that, I like the surprise," Maisy replied, her stance on courtesy calls changing from just mere seconds ago. She moved from Luke to Lorelai and took the woman's hands in hers, "And look at you, you look wonderful. You're glowing."

"Thank you Maisy," Lorelai beamed at the older woman whom she had grown closer to in the many visits to Sniffy's that she and Luke made over the course of their relationship.

"Come on now, let's not stand in the doorway," Maisy said as she directed the couple to follow behind her. "Since you didn't call I couldn't reserve your table but we'll see if it's open anyways."

Luckily for them their usual table was free so they were quickly seated. Luke apologized again for not calling beforehand but gave his excuse as them being close by after the latest doctor's appointment and in need of dinner so there was only one place to go. That prompted Maisy to ask for details on the pregnancy, how everything was going and if they were any updated sonogram pictures. Lorelai handed over the latest pictures she had in her purse over to Luke and sat back as he talked with Maisy, who stopped him for just a moment to go and get Buddy.

Lorelai watched on quietly as Luke talked with the couple, who he practically thought of as family, about their soon to be addition to the family. She would say that he gushed over the idea that he was going to be a father but Luke would argue that he doesn't gush and he was just updating important people in his life over that latest happenings in his life. Either way she felt a sense of pride watching her husband discuss their future child with two people who were just as ecstatic as they were over the news. She knew, without them really approaching that issue yet, that it was important for him to be able to share this news with Buddy and Maisy since he couldn't share this moment in their life with his parents in the way that she could with her parents.

Once Buddy and Maisy were both gone, off to get whatever dishes they thought the couple would enjoy tonight, Lorelai scooted closer to Luke in the booth and let her head drop down to his shoulder.

Luke wrapped his arm around her. "You okay? What's wrong?"

Lorelai lifted her head just enough to smile at him then kiss him on the cheek. "I'm fine, just wanted to be close to you."

Luke smiled, "Can't complain about that."

* * *

 **So this chapter just kind of sets things up for following chapters.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Late update, still hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own.**

* * *

"Lorelai! Come get your friend!"

Lorelai blew out an exasperated breath, tearing her eyes away from the parade on television and pushing herself up from the couch. She followed the sounds of squabbling, courtesy of her best friend and husband, to the kitchen where the two cooks (or chef as Sookie preferred) were standing in front of one another in a face-off. An outcome that was to be expected when Lorelai suggested to Luke that they invite Sookie and Jackson over for Thanksgiving to give the new parents a reprieve from the craziness of the beginning of the holiday season. That seemed like a good idea in hindsight but if this morning was any indication this day was going to be just as crazy as the day she was trying to avoid, perhaps even more. And that wasn't even factoring in her parents who were set to arrive later today.

"Luke if you would just –"

"No! My turkey, my stuffing, my kitchen, my rules!"

"I'm just trying to save people from eating dry turkey."

"My turkey is not dry!"

"Ding, ding, ding," Lorelai chimed loudly enough until the two bickering adults turned to face her. "And that's the end of round one. Or should I say round two, since Luke woke me up this morning by arguing with you over the phone before you ever showed up."

"Well if your husband wasn't a stubborn ass, none of this arguing would be happening!" Sookie fumed, her arms crossed over her chest. "I'm just offering a few suggestions that would improve the turkey and everyone's experience today but he's refusing to listen."

"That's because I have my own way, a specially developed rub and stuffing that I use every year," Luke argued. "Never had any complaints from anyone in town."

"That's because they've never had mine!"

"Okay, okay," Lorelai said, stepping in between the two adults before kitchen utensils were drawn as weapons and there was bloodshed on a day that was supposed to be about food. Or thanks, depending on the way a person thought. "Simmer down now." When her attempt at a kitchen joke was only met with blank stares, she added on, "Let's stop the arguing, at least for a moment."

Lorelai placed her hands on Luke's chest and gently pushed him back, she took hold of his shoulders and turned him back towards the stove, "Now you work on your turkey or whatever you were doing before I had to come in here and play referee." She stretched up enough to press a kiss on his cheek, "Play nice."

She then turned her attention to Sookie, taking the shorter woman by her shoulders and gently guiding her away from the stove and therefore the turkey and Luke. "Sookie remember what we discussed would happen today?"

"Yes, but..."

"No buts," Lorelai cut in, "Now what did we discuss?"

Sookie sighed. "That Luke would handle the turkey and then we would split sides and desserts because I had a baby a few weeks ago and you wanted me to take it easy and not stress so much," she repeated diligently, going on to sound more like a five year old than a mother to a newborn.

"Very good," Lorelai complimented, she guided Sookie to the counter where a cutting board, a knife, and freshly cut veggies lie. "I know you love cooking and the turkey is the main attraction but everyone will love whatever you make, you know that. You're an amazing chef."

Lorelai took a step back as Sookie grumbled something else about the turkey but since Luke didn't seem to hear her, she didn't feel the end to jump in and remedy the problem. She watched on as both of them worked silently on their individual tasks, grateful that they weren't arguing for now. But if past experiences with Luke and Sookie sharing a kitchen had taught her anything, it would only be a matter of time before the arguing started up again. Whether or not they would reach some form of understanding by the end of the day, as it happened sometimes, was up in the air and would require at least a few more hours.

The sound of the front door opening and Rory calling out for her caught Lorelai's attention.

"Can I trust you two to not kill each other if I leave the kitchen?" Lorelai asked, the chefs were quiet and focused on their work but both gave nods of their head. She started to slowly back out the kitchen while giving them a warning. "If I have to come back in here again, I'm taking away knives."

Lorelai turned on her heel and swiftly exited the kitchen. Back in the living room, she peeked into the portable bassinet set up near the couch and checked in on the sleeping baby that had no idea of the crazy his mother possessed when it came to control in the kitchen. He would know in time but for now he was far off in dreamland, evident by the smile on his face. With Sookie in the kitchen and Jackson currently not at the house since he was taking care of his vegetables in the chilly November air, she was on baby duty. She let him sleep and met Rory at the front door where she was struggling to carry a few bouquets of flowers while trying to take off her coat.

"Ooh, nice selection today," Lorelai said, taking the flowers from her daughter and bringing them up to her nose to sniff.

Rory slid off her coat and hung it up on the coat rack. "Don't tell me you and Luke are going to argue over flowers and vases again this year, you're married so it wouldn't make sense."

"But it's tradition!"

"A tradition that really makes no sense now."

"But you see loinfruit, that's where you're wrong," Lorelai informed her daughter as she led her away from the front door and through the living room. "It's not that we'll argue over not having a vase because we do have a vase but what we will argue over is the fact that I'll go to reach for the vase but since it's in a cabinet that's just a little too high for me, Luke will argue that he'll need to get it down so I don't exert myself too much by stretching because that might be bad for the baby when in fact, I will be fine and can do it by myself with no harm to the baby at all."

"Wow, you've really thought about this."

"Hard not to with Mr. Protective in there," Lorelai replied as she once again stopped by the bassinet. She shifted the bouquets of flowers in her arms then stroked her finger over little Davey's cheek. "I'm just glad he's not as bad as Jackson because I would not be able to survive that." She turned back to her daughter and noticed she was absent one person. "Jess isn't with you?"

Rory shook her head, "Nope. He decided to stay and help with the dinner at the diner since Cesar is running it this year and seems a little lost even though Luke left him very clear instructions. He'll be over later, that's if he survives Miss Patty. She was already there and had plenty of leering comments for him."

"That's Miss Patty for ya."

Rory plopped down on the couch, grabbing the remote and switching from the parade that was now over until she landed on something that she wanted to watch. She gestured for her mom to do the same but Lorelai gestured to the bouquets in her hands that needed some water and a vase.

"Sounds quiet in there," Rory observed after she didn't hear anything coming from the kitchen besides the clanging of pans and opening and shutting of cabinets. "Is Sookie still even in there?"

"Oh just wait for it," Lorelai instructed.

It had been quiet far too long. When working together in the kitchen, Sookie and Luke were never quiet for long. There was always arguing over the other person's choices in spices, rubs, secret ingredients that they were sure the other one was going to steal, and the meddling with the other person's dishes when they thought they weren't looking. Even when they weren't getting along it wasn't quiet because Sookie had a tendency to get over excited over new culinary discoveries. The mother and daughter didn't have to wait long before a thunderous roar erupted from the kitchen.

"What did you do to the turkey?"

"Nothing! I swear."

"It did not look like that when I put it in there."

Lorelai spoke up again when Sookie began to explain that what she did was really best for the turkey and what was best for the turkey was best for everyone in general. "That's my cue to go mediate yet another argument, this time with flowers." She cleared her throat before declaring, "Okay, knives down! I was serious about taking them away."

* * *

Hours later, the house was filled with the delicious and mouth-watering scents of the feast that Luke and Sookie had prepared, the two finally coming to an understanding and appreciation of the other person's culinary skills that would only last until the next time they shared a kitchen. The table was set and decorated with mismatched vases that held the bouquets of flowers that Rory brought earlier and, as she predicted, Lorelai and Luke fought about when she went to reach for a vase that was placed far too overheard for her to reach without stretching as far as she could. And Lorelai was happy since she managed to avoid her parents since they arrived, leaving them alone in a room with Jackson under the pretense that she was needed in the kitchen helped since he could talk vegetables with nearly anyone. Then when his veggie-related stories no longer amused anyone, Rory and Jess managed to keep the conversation flowing with the elder Gilmores' while Lorelai avoided them for the moment.

"This all smells amazing," Lorelai complimented as she lingered in the kitchen, sneaking tiny samples of the dishes when she thought no one was looking though they definitely noticed. "Is everything ready because I am starving. I'm eating for two here people."

"Almost," Sookie answered. "Just putting the finishing touches on and then I'll be done."

"You're still starving after sneaking food?" Luke asked, coming up behind Lorelai just as she was about to sneak another marshmallow away from the sweet potatoes.

Lorelai quickly brought her hand back to her side and smiled as innocently as she could up at her husband. "Why I have no idea what you're talking about. I never sneak food before it's ready, I'm appalled that you would think that."

Luke's eyes traveled to her sweater, appropriate for the day as it was embellished with little turkeys, and noticed the crumbs that she had yet to brush away. "And the crumbs on your sweater?"

Lorelai didn't look but still swiped at where she thought the crumbs might be. "Those are from cookies not any of the food in here that you two spent most of the day cooking."

"The cookies that I made last night and brought over here for today?" Sookie asked, done with her finishing touches and interested in their conversation.

"That is besides the point, the point of today is food. Lots and lots of food," Lorelai attempted to change the subject. "Today is all about food and that should be celebrated."

"Today is about giving thanks."

"Says the man who isn't even big on traditions though his actions would beg to differ most of the time," Lorelai replied. She sighed. "Can we eat now?"

"Everything is ready, Sookie and I will set the table, you go get everyone to the table," Luke answered.

"On it!"

While Sookie and Luke each grabbed a dish and headed from the kitchen to the dining room, Lorelai went the opposite direction heading into the living room and announcing that everyone could now make their way to the dining room since dinner was ready and to be served in just a few minutes. As everyone was seated, Lorelai didn't miss her mother's comments about the choice in vases and how none of them matched and were absurd choices for vases and how she was sure Lorelai had more refined and matching vases stashed somewhere that she just refused to use but she chose to brush those comments away. However she wasn't quite as ready to brush away comments when there were comments made, by both her mother and father, on how all the food was arranged on the table and not stashed away in the kitchen.

"Are we supposed to just serve ourselves?" Emily asked.

"Well not right now," Lorelai answered as she took her seat. While Luke would take his seat at the head of the table, she chose to sit near him instead of at the opposite end of the table. Her seating choice put her directly in front of her parents. "Once Luke brings the turkey out, he'll carve it then we can all pass the food around until you get what you want. That way you can make your own plate."

"As much or as little at you want," Rory chimed in. She sat next to her mother. "It's the way we do family dinners. Well not all the time because sometimes Luke fixes mom's plate for her."

"Which he always overloads with vegetables," Lorelai said.

"And now that you're pregnant, you don't complain nearly as much as you did before," Rory pointed out.

"This baby does love the veggies," Lorelai replied just as Luke walked into the dining room with the turkey while Sookie squealed about how beautiful the turkey was thanks to her help, unwanted as it may have been earlier today.

At first the honor of carving the turkey was going to fall to Sookie but as a precaution and not wanting ay injuries on this day either to the accident-prone chef herself or to anyone else that was invited over, it was decided that Luke's duties wouldn't stop at cooking the turkey but carving it as well. The changing of carvers proved to be a good idea seeing as Lorelai already had to breakout the band-aids twice today and tend to her friend's injuries. She liked watching the more than just ceremonial carving of the turkey that went on at her parents house not just because it meant dinner would soon be underway but it was also a sign of her own family traditions forming right before her eyes and a sign of what was to come in the many, many years she would share with Luke.

The turkey was carved and Lorelai requested the first, and biggest, piece which was a request filled by Luke. Soon after plates were filled with the carved turkey and offerings from the various prepared dishes that threatened to overwhelm the table. While she filled her plate, Lorelai noticed just how out of place her parents seemed to feel with the passing around of dishes instead of simply being served what was for dinner. She also noticed that while her parents made comments about the food, the table set-up, and even Davey whose bassinet was brought into the dining room so the concerned parents could watch over him while they ate, they weren't really speaking to one another just speaking around one another.

Since the last time she spoke to her father was when he blamed her for the argument she had with her mother over the nursery, she was glad that he chose to focus on Rory at the dinner table. He asked her questions about school; the course-load, the upcoming exams, and surprisingly her social life since she couldn't spend her college years holed away in her room studying all the time. Lorelai, for the most part, had put the whole nursery thing behind her. She didn't like her father blaming her for the argument but she knew that hell would freeze over before Emily Gilmore would apologize for her actions and, in the end and after the whole ordeal, she still had her chance to decorate her baby's nursery the way she wanted. Worrying about it wasn't really worth it, not with everything else she currently had on her plate. Figuratively not literally. And even though she did her best to ignore them earlier, she decided to be the adult and strike up a conversation with her parents. At least with her mother who was silent yet nodding along as Richard continued to talk with Rory and Jess.

"So Mom," Lorelai called out, picking up her glass of juice and taking a sip making sure she had the older woman's attention before she carried on. "How are things?"

Emily stopped mid-cut of the piece of turkey on her plate and looked up at her daughter, "Things?"

Lorelai nodded. "Things. Your life, the DAR, your…gardening?" she struggled to finish off her list, making the last option sound more like a question because she had no idea how to start this conversation.

"My life doesn't revolve around the DAR Lorelai."

"I didn't say that," Lorelai replied confused by her mother's sudden hostile tone. But by the way her mother cut her eyes to her father for a split second and made a comment about how she had more going on in her life than just buying things and planning events for people who didn't appreciate them, she had a feeling that the hostility wasn't directed towards her at all.

Well maybe just a little.

"Thing are fine Lorelai," Emily insisted though her tone said otherwise. "I'm fine, your father's fine, his business partner Jason is fine and apparently knows best, just drop it."

"Fine," Lorelai parroted, ducking her head to look at her plate of food and only lifting her head when she felt Luke place his hand on top of hers and give it a gentle squeeze.

Instead of trying to talk with her parents again who were in moods of their own, Lorelai carried on conversation with Luke and then Sookie, who sat at the opposite end of the table, and then with her daughter. Conversation jumped from person to person, switching topics at lightening speed, all in between stuffing herself full of all the yummy food that Luke and Sookie had spent most of their day preparing. Soon after everyone had eaten their fill of turkey, side dishes, and rolls. They were ready to move onto dessert which was the only thing that wasn't on the table. By this time, Sookie had already left the table to nurse Davey in Lorelai's bedroom since she insisted on somewhere private, Rory and Jess had left the table and retired to the living room as had Emily and Richard, at Rory's insistence, leaving Jackson, Luke, and Lorelai still all at the table.

Luke stood up from the table and closed the small gap between where his chair was placed and where his wife sat. He bent down and pressed a kiss to her head, "I'll go put on some coffee, cut the pie, and bring you slice, sound good?"

Lorelai pushed away from the table, "I can help. I'll help you clear the table and get the dessert ready."

"You don't have to do that," Luke insisted, "You can go rest, watch tv, I've got this. I can clean up."

Lorelai stacked her empty plate on top of Rory's and then a few others that were discarded at the table, "It's fine, honestly. I've got it. I want to help," she managed a small smile before she disappeared into the kitchen.

Jackson made it clear to Luke that he help with the clean-up and he could handle everything else that was left on the table if Luke wanted to follow Lorelai into the kitchen. Luke muttered a quick 'thanks' before he grabbed a few dishes even though Jackson insisted that he didn't have to do that and followed Lorelai into the kitchen. He found his wife at the coffee pot dumping coffee grounds into a filter before placing it in the machine and turning it on, her movements jerky as she spilled some coffee grounds on the counter. He approached her from behind, placing his hand on the small of her back when he got close enough.

"What's wrong Lorelai?"

Lorelai turned around to face her husband. "Just my parents, you saw them. I tried to be the one to put things behind us and then their attitude is still directed towards me." She sighed. "And the thing is, I don't even think it's me. They were barely talking to each other, I think my mom is upset with my father over something but she just ignored him and shut me down when I asked a simple question. I mean it's not any different than normal, they're just so frustrating."

"Well that is one of the words to describe your parents. I've heard you use many others before, some I don't want to repeat," Luke replied causing Lorelai to smile at him, a genuine smile this time. "Do you want me to get them to leave? It worked once on your mother."

Lorelai shook her head. "We shouldn't let them leave without pie, that would just be evil."

"Right, we can at least serve them pie."

"Now if you want to serve them pie without whipped cream, well I wouldn't be opposed to that," Lorelai replied causing Luke to chuckle and call her 'Crazy Lady.' She relaxed a little more when he pressed a kiss to her head and insisted that he could finish clean up so she could rest if she wanted. But she wanted to help, mainly to wash a few dishes because for some reason that was always soothing to her.

Lorelai took her place at the sink, filling it with water and dish soap as both Luke and Jackson brought her dishes that she wanted to wash instead of just placing them in the dishwasher. Humming quietly to herself, she submerged her hands into the warm, soapy water and focused on nothing but cleaning the little bits of food from the dishes. She wasn't a big cleaner, always wanting to leave things until the last minute, but there was just something about washing dishes that she tended to do when frustrated and surrounded by dirty dishes that seemed to relax her.

* * *

After a round of pie and coffee, starting with regular at first and then switching to decaf, all the adults sat around the living room. Jess and Rory had left just moments ago, just heading outside to spend a little time by themselves. Surprisingly, Emily and Richard still stuck around and only heightened Lorelai's suspicions when they still just talked around one another. She managed to chat with them just a little, mainly her mother since her father excused himself a couple of times to take calls even though it was a holiday and his wife wasn't happy about the interruption. Lorelai cooed over Davey and insisted Luke hold the baby to help him become more comfortable around people of the infant variety. She was slowly drifting off on Luke's shoulder when he nudged her and pointed out the fact that for some reason her mother was headed upstairs. She rubbed at her eyes until she was fully awake and noticed that her father was missing, presumably on another call, and her mother was almost upstairs.

"Be right back," Lorelai told Luke as she got up from the couch and began to follow her mother.

Lorelai stopped at the staircase when she noticed her mother standing in front of the door that led to the nursery. The freshly painted nursery that gave off a feeling of warmth when the sun shone through the window. She approached slowly and cautiously, not wanting to startle her mother but also trying to find out what in the hell was going on with her.

"Mom," Lorelai called softly as she approached. "What are you doing up here?"

"The nursery is a nice color," Emily commented without turning to face her daughter. "A little bright for my taste but a decent color."

"It's a very soft yellow...soothing, warm, homey," Lorelai described, she moved to stand beside her mother whose gaze was still focused in the almost empty room. The only thing in there being an old dresser and a teddy bear Lorelai picked up from the store just days ago. "I think it's a perfect color for the nursery."

"Well it is your house, yours to do with what you please. If you think the color is nice then you should paint it that color," Emily replied.

"Okay." Lorelai tilted her head until she could look her mother in the eyes, "Mom, what's going on?"

"I don't know what you mean," Emily avoided the question.

"So you know nothing about the whole tundra between you and Dad?" Lorelai asked, "You've barely spoken two words to each other all day."

"When have we had the time to talk? He's always on the phone with Jason or some client even though it's a holiday and he should be spending it with his family," Emily replied, catching herself before she said anymore.

"Jealous of Digger?" Lorelai quipped.

"Lorelai," Emily said in that no-nonsense tone that Lorelai recognized as the one that always used right before another argument would break-out between them.

Lorelai relented. "Fine. Besides, it's not like you can be jealous of him. His name is Digger. Just use that if he's around too much, it's sure to annoy him as much as he apparently annoys you."

"He's your father's business partner."

"But not yours, to you he's just someone that makes unwanted trips to your house and calls your husband on holidays. Call him Digger," Lorelai encouraged, even going as far to nudge her mother with her elbow.

For the briefest of moments, she shared a smile with her mother but that was quickly replied by a stony expression by the elder Gilmore. She turned away from her daughter and once again looked into the nursery. "I see you haven't made much progress in this room. You need to start, you don't need to wait until the last minute."

"We're working on it," Lorelai replied. "I mean, it doesn't look like because there's really nothing in the room but we are working in it. Luke is building the crib."

"He's building a crib?" Emily asked.

Lorelai nodded, "Yeah. He went out and bought the proper wood, looked at pictures of his old crib that his father made for him, and created a sketch or diagram or whatever from that, and he started work on making the crib himself."

"And that will be safe?"

"Of course," Lorelai insisted. "Luke wouldn't say he could do that if it was going to harm his child in some way. I know that he can do this and I've seen some of the work he's done on it and it's great. Beautiful really."

"I had no idea," Emily replied.

Lorelai sighed. "That's part of the reason that I didn't want you to buy all that crap for the nursery. We're already working on it, Luke is building the crib and as for everything else, I'm going to work it around the crib and the color of the room. And the other reason is what I've already told you, that wasn't my style at all."

"I didn't know about the crib. I thought I would do something for you, help you in some way. I see now that it wasn't needed," Emily said honestly and with just a hint in vulnerability in her voice that Lorelai almost didn't detect since it passed by so fast and she never really imagined her mother as vulnerable

"Mom..."

"Dinner was lovely Lorelai," Emily replied, the subject already changed in her mind. "It's getting late, your father and I should really get going that way we don't hit any traffic on the way home."

Lorelai didn't have a chance to reply as her mother moved around her and down the staircase and out of view at a surprisingly fast speed. Moving that fast wasn't ladylike, as least she assumed that's what her mother would say. By the time she got to the bottom of the staircase and back to where Luke, Sookie, and Jackson were, her parents were gone. Just seconds after, Sookie and Jackson excused themselves wanting to get Davey home for their nighttime ritual.

Once everyone was gone, Luke walked up to Lorelai, "Why did your mother go upstairs? What happened?"

"It was weird," Lorelai replied, only giving him that until she fully digested the conversation with her mother herself. She leaned into Luke's side, "I think baby wants more pie."

"Baby or you?" Luke asked.

Lorelai smiled, her hand resting on her baby bump. "Which answer gets me more pie?"

Luke pressed his hand to hers that rested on her baby bump before he stroked it over the material of her sweater that stretched over her midsection. It was a fleeting moment before he turned and walked towards the kitchen. "You want whipped cream?" he called over his shoulder.

"On the pie or on you?" Lorelai teased, calling after him.

"That's a yes," Luke acknowledged which caused his wife to giggle and then follow after him.

* * *

 **Leave it there for you to imagine what you want about the whipped cream.**

 **We all know that Emily doesn't exactly apologize directly so decided to tie in the Richard/Emily stuff from Season 4 to my own little story-line, at least the first hints of something wrong to go along with Emily's actions in some parts. Hope you enjoyed!**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows!**

 **This chapter starts about a month after the last chapter, just bypassing most of the holiday season just to move the story along.**

 **Mostly a little fluff for your day.**

* * *

Lorelai pulled her coat tighter around her and readjusted her scarf that had unwound from around her neck causing it to hang loosely and have virtually no use besides coordinating with her outfit. The cold and bitter wind nipped at her face tinging her cheeks a stinging shade of pink. When she arrived at the diner, Luke would insist it was too cold for her to be out walking because it could in some way be bad for the baby even if she was bundled up. Never mind that her pregnant body was basically turning into her own personal space heater. Besides she loved talking walks through the snow, the town looked so peaceful covered in the light blanket of white. Everything looked so fresh, it sparkled, providing a fresh and clean perspective to the town that she deemed fitting since it was near the start of a new year.

That and the snow mingled along with the remnants of Christmas decorations that Taylor had yet to take down. The blame for the decorations still being up a few days after Christmas falling to Kirk since Taylor put him in charge of them this year. Plus she had several great memories that involved snow and seemed to add to those great, sometimes once-in-a-lifetime memories every year.

That is until today, until the moment she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and stepped right into a puddle. The icy water immediately piercing through her boots, decorative socks, and even the bottom of her pants leg, causing her to yelp loudly and jump back which was a difficult maneuver with how much her body had changed recently to accommodate her unborn child. She was feeling much larger than she did just a month ago though it wasn't as evident to others.

"Damn it," Lorelai muttered under her breath, trying to balance and shake her left leg free of the icy water that was beginning to numb her foot.

"You okay doll?"

Lorelai turned to see Miss Patty peeking out of her dance studio which she had conveniently stopped in front of to lean against the railing for better balance. She managed a smile for the older lady and insisted that she was fine, that she was just dealing with a little bit of water damage. The dance teacher finally accepted Lorelai's answer, only after watching her for a few minutes, and disappeared back into her dance studio to direct her little dancing snowflakes around the room in a flurry. The smile from earlier fell from her face when she pushed away from the railing and began to hobble her way towards the diner. Everyone in town was well meaning but she didn't need anyone making a bigger deal out of the small inconvenience of semi-frozen water in her shoe.

She had almost made it to the diner, in fact she was just about to make her way up the few steps that led to the diner door when she heard her name being called. She knew that voice and while that voice belonged to someone who could keep the town entertained with his many, many quirks and job titles, she was no longer in a mood where she could deal with him.

"Not now Kirk."

"I just need a couple of minutes of your time Lorelai," Kirk explained.

Though she really wasn't in the mood, she was starving and really wanted some lunch, and her foot was slowly freezing, she turned towards him with arms crossed on top of her baby bump. "Two minutes."

"Oh I'm not sure if two minutes is long enough, it is a business proposal and you might need time to think it over, and I'll have to present it. Might take me longer than two minutes to explain. Mother always said I wasn't good at explaining things in a timely manner, in school my presentations were always cut off. I thought they just didn't want to hear me talk..."

"Tick-tock Kirk, I don't need your whole life story," Lorelai interrupted.

"Right," Kirk sighed. He cleared his throat. "I want to babysit your child."

"Well Kirk as tempting of an offer as that is, Rory hasn't needed a babysitter for years. I'm pretty sure she doesn't need one now. She is pretty self sufficient that one," Lorelai replied.

"Good one," Kirk complimented. "But I didn't mean Rory, I meant your and Luke's child."

When Kirk reached out his hand as if her were thinking about touching her belly, Lorelai recoiled. Stepping just far back enough that Kirk could no longer touch her, she replied. "First, don't touch the belly. Second, you can't babysit a child that hasn't even been born yet."

"I know that," Kirk replied. "Which is why I'm asking you now. I plan to start out small, work my way up to taking care of an actual human baby. Don't worry though, by the time your baby is born I will be qualified enough to be a manny."

"Manny?" Lorelai questioned, slightly amused that Kirk had to specify a human baby but also worried for anyone who would entrust their child with Kirk.

"A male nanny," Kirk clarified. "Since after all I am a man."

Lorelai tried not to shudder at the look Kirk had on his face when he insisted that he was a man. She always just thought of him as Kirk, not really fitting into any specifics just his own unique Kirk-ness. The kind that made him delusional enough to think that she or Luke would ever leave their child in his care. The same man who acted more like a child than a grown man should and that had frequent night terrors that gave her many repressed images of his naked but running down the street.

"Do you think Sookie would let me watch Davey?" Kirk as as Lorelai remained silent. "I mean not right away, I'm using a baby doll for practice right now. He doesn't do anything but real babies cry and stuff."

Lorelai thought the could entertain this conversation longer but she could barely feel her foot now and Luke was now watching her through the window in the diner so she insisted that she really had to go inside. When Kirk inquired again about the 'manny' situation, she let him know that they weren't looking for anyone and that many childcare wasn't one of the many jobs that he would hold throughout his lifetime. Before she could make it into the diner, he informed her that he would ask again soon. After he got some experiencing in the babysitting area.

As soon as Lorelai entered the diner hobbling since her foot was slowly turning into a popsicle, Luke was by her side. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tried to guide her to an empty table only for her to protest and insist on a seat at the counter.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked as he got Lorelai settled on the stool before he rounded behind the counter.

"Stupid puddle, frozen foot, manny Kirk," Lorelai listed off, accepting the cup of coffee Luke pushed towards her even if it was decaf. She sniffed the contents before setting it back down on the counter, the beverage not exactly what she wanted at the moment.

"Frozen foot?" Luke asked. He crossed back to her side of the counter and it was then he noticed that her boot was soaked. "Your shoe's all wet."

"I told you I stepped in a puddle. I'm pretty sure my foot is a popsicle at this point."

"Why weren't you watching where you were walking? I told you that you didn't need to be out walking, not in the snow. And definitely not in those shoes. You could have fallen. It's too icy out there."

"Save the lecture, not in the mood," Lorelai fired back. Really needing to get out of the wet and semi-frozen sock that encased her foot, she asked, "Hey, if I take off my socks can you put them in the oven to dry them?"

"That's not what an oven is for."

"It's what I use it for at home. I even have the recipe down. Bake at two-fifty, ten minutes on each side."

Luke didn't even try to pretend that he didn't already know that. Since the weather had turned colder, it seemed that happen more frequently that he would enter the kitchen to find the oven on and Lorelai's socks spread across the rack. She always managed to come in just a few minutes longer, as soon as the timer buzzer, asking if her socks were toasty yet before trying them out for herself.

"That's not what an oven is for," Luke reiterated. "Drying your socks here would break many health code violations."

"But Luke, my foot is frozen," Lorelai whined. "You can't let your pregnant wife sit here with a frozen foot. That's normally one of the things you would go on and on about on how it's going to make me sick which of course wouldn't be good for the baby."

She was right, he couldn't let her just sit there with what she was now referring to as her foot popsicle. It didn't take him long before he thought of a solution. Granted it probably wasn't the best solution but it would have to do for now.

"Okay, are you doing Luke?" Lorelai asked when Luke gestured for her to follow him. When he didn't answer right away, she slid off her stool as gracefully as she could and followed him behind the curtain to the stairwell where he was currently taking off his work boots.

"I'm giving you my socks," Luke answered. With both of his work boots off, he pulled off his socks and held them out to his wife. "Take them, wear them, your feet won't be cold anymore."

"Stinky man socks." Lorelai scrunched up her nose but still accepted his offer. She could make do with his socks for now. She sat down on one of the steps and with much more effort than Luke, she began to remove her boots and socks. Dropping the wet sock beside her and sliding her foot into the warm one, she asked. "Can you even wear your boots without socks?"

"Might not be comfortable but I'll manage."

Once his boots were back on and Lorelai was wearing his socks, she decided to forgo the shoes for the moment, he reached out his hand and pulled her up from the step. His right hand stroked over her baby bump. "How are you and Little-No-Name today?"

Lorelai smiled at the name they had taken to calling their baby recently since they were far from deciding on a name. "We're both good. Well Little-No-Name is good, I'm okay-ish. Besides the foot popsicle, coffee is not on the good list today for some reason. Kirk's been annoying and Michel complained this morning about our meeting for an Inn being Sookie's way of holding a tasting. According to him, he's put on a little holiday weight and it's going to ruin his love life."

Luke dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "Let's go get you some lunch." Without her shoes, he still led her back to the diner where he quickly disposed of her coffee. "So no coffee, what else can I get you?"

"Turkey club, side of mashed potatoes, and an apple," Lorelai replied almost automatically.

"Weird combo." Though it wasn't the weirdest she had managed to come up since her food cravings started.

Lorelai gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Cravings. Oh and I want some strawberry milk."

"I don't have any."

"Luke!" Lorelai admonished, drawing attention from a few of the other customers in the diner. "Don't tell me that. It's already been a crazy morning, don't make the day worse."

"I'm sorry," Luke apologized, "But I don't have any, no one ever orders it. I don't carry it."

Lorelai pouted as Luke walked away to hand Cesar the lunch order. "Little-No-Name isn't as happy now."

At that time, her daughter's best friend appeared by her side. She was a recent hire by Luke. Though he did still have Jess and Cesar helping him out in the diner, he decided to hire just a little more help for when the baby came so he wouldn't have to spend all his time at the diner. Though they still had months until then, he thought it was best to prepare now.

"What did I hear about strawberry milk? We're out?" Lane asked as she looked up at Luke before she turned to Lorelai. "But you're craving it?"

Lorelai nodded, "It's been on my mind since I woke up this morning."

"Was this when you woke me up to see the snow early this morning?" Luke asked, his questioned went unanswered by Lorelai.

"Well you can't just forget that, and I believe it is in my job requirements to make sure the customer is satisfied, especially if that customer is the mother of my best friend and the wife of my boss, so I can just run over to Doose's and get some for you," Lane replied, she looked to Luke for approval.

"You don't have to do that..." Luke started only to have Lane chime in again, perkily he would say.

"It's no problem. Be right back."

Before Luke could object any further, Lane was out the door and headed over to Doose's. A smile returned to Lorelai's face as she watched the young girl dash across the town square before she turned back around to face Luke who looked bewildered by his most recent employee.

"I like her working here," Lorelai commented.

"She's on top of everything," Luke whispered just in case Lane came back quickly, she was efficient that way. "This morning, she handled the breakfast rush with ease. I barely did anything. I went into the stockroom and no one called for help."

"And that's a bad thing?"

Luke sighed. "No. I don't know."

"I'm supposed to be the one with the mood swings hon," Lorelai teased. "You wanted more help so the diner would be covered later on when the baby arrives. Now you know that the diner won't be in any danger with Lane here. You can't complain about good help. Great help since she even offered to run to the store to get my milk, you didn't even offer that and I'm married to you."

"I would have brought some when I came home tonight," Luke replied.

"By then the craving might have been gone."

"I still would have brought some home." He started to remove the plates left behind from a customer that just left when something she said earlier rang in his mind. "Hold on, manny Kirk? What the hell does that mean?"

Lorelai laughed, her mood from earlier lifted as she launched into the business proposal Kirk confronted with her earlier while she waited on Lane to return from the store and for Cesar to whip up her lunch order. As expected, Luke replied with a firm 'hell no,' at the mention of Kirk ever looking after their child. Though it did almost prompt a discussion on how they would handle both being in charge of their own businesses, hers being a new business by the time their child was born, and raising a child since they couldn't necessarily bring their baby to work with them but Lorelai decided to table the discussion for now since Cesar signaled that her food was ready and she was now in possession of the beverage she had been craving.

Still the question remained in the back of Luke's mind, along with a myriad of other things that they had yet to discuss about their unborn child. There was still plenty to be done, really the only things they had done at this point was paint the nursery and buy a few things here and there that started to slowly pile up in the nursery. He was almost finished with the crib, it just needed to final few details to be added which he could easily get done over the course of the next couple of days. It would be one thing that he could finally cross off his ever-growing list. The list that he felt like grew ten-fold every week.

* * *

Later that night Lorelai rested comfortably on the couch, invoices and paperwork for the work-in-progress Dragonfly surrounded her. After her meeting with Michel and Sookie, that she would admit was part tasting/part meeting, she forced herself to go over the budget to see how all of their expenses were piling up since most of the stuff they preferred for the inn was on the more expensive side of interior decoration. A lot of the Dragonfly work fell to the side around the holidays but now that they were through most of the holiday season and a new year was about to begin, it was back to work for her. So far the renovations were going along just swimmingly, the budget was starting to get a bit tight but she figured that she could find a way to deal with it.

With one last glance over the paperwork, she gathered it all into a neat pile and stretched forward to pile it all on the coffee table. She rubbed her hands over her face, forgetting that she had her glasses on her face and knocking them off in the process. They fell onto the couch cushion next to her and she left them there, mentally reminding herself to pick them up later so she wouldn't lose them. She moved one hand down to the swell of her belly and lazily stroked up and down thinking of the precious life she held inside of her. The precious life that she would learn the gender of in just a week or two, whenever her next appointment was she couldn't remember. Both she and Luke wanted to find out and said they were fine with either, though she could imagine a little boy, a mini clone of Luke that she would definitely make a tiny flannel shirt for. Though she would do the same if they had a girl.

She grinned when she felt a gentle poking sensation against her hand. She knew what the feeling was and remembered nearly freaking out the first time it happened when she was pregnant with Rory. "Hey little one, comfy in there?" She laughed when that was answered with another tiny poke, one that she barely felt. "Okay, keep that up for when daddy gets home, I'm sure he'll want to feel."

After a few minutes she switched positions and laid down on the couch, moving around until she got into a comfortable position. Her glasses dug into her side but she quickly dug them out and dumped them on the table. One arm curled up under the pillow she laid her head on while the other laid across her belly while she focused on the movie that played on TV, though her focus wasn't entirely there.

The holidays were generally a tense time for any family and this year was no exception for hers. While everything went smoothly at her house as she and Luke celebrated their first Christmas together as a married couple and a growing family, something was up with her parents. She wasn't quite sure what was going on between them but she knew there was something going on that her mother was keeping from her. At their annual Christmas party she noticed the tension between them, mainly radiating from her mother while her father was wrapped up in his business venture scouting potential clients from the invited guests, but when she tried to talk to her mother, she was swiftly shut down.

Rory expressed the same concerns that she felt about her parents and she tried to assure her daughter that nothing was going on but she knew that Rory knew better than that. It was hard not to suspect that something was up after what happened at Thanksgiving and then the recent Friday Night dinners. Yet every-time she tried to lend an ear or give a little advice, her mother quickly distracted herself by finding a task to do and a maid to yell at.

Her focus on whatever was going on with her parents and the little focus she had for the movie was broken when she heard the front door open followed by the sound of her husband's work boots. She called out to let him know that she was on the couch and it only took him a few minutes to come over to her and kneel down so they were face-to-face.

"Hey, I thought you were closing tonight," Lorelai said after she pulled away from the kiss she planted on his lips.

"We were slow, Al's had a new special on his menu tonight," Luke replied. "I'm not worried, once people realize that Al's is still Al's even with a new special, they'll come back to the diner."

"Because your food is better and most of it isn't blue, unless it's supposed to be." She looked down and noticed that he wasn't wearing his boots. She cringed when she noticed a couple of band-aids covering his feet. "So the no socks things didn't really work out?"

"It's just a few blisters, I'll be fine."

"Oh babe, I didn't even think about bringing you extra socks by the diner. You should have called me."

"I'm fine," Luke brushed it off. He leaned forward and captured her lips in a kiss. "I'm going to go take a shower."

"Wait," Lorelai called out to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him back down when he tried to stand up. She placed her hand on the side of her baby bump. When she noticed his questioning eyes, she added on, "Just wait. Little-No-Name was moving around earlier, and he or she was under strict orders to keep it up when you got home."

Luke chuckled. "Strict orders, huh? I'm not sure if that worked, I don't feel anything."

"Just wait," Lorelai instructed. When a few more minutes went by and there was still no movement felt by either of them, she had a suggestion. "Talk to baby, maybe your voice will make the little one move again."

Luke ducked his head to her belly and as instructed starting talking to their unborn child. Something he had started to do most every night before bed. His voice was soft and his words were gentle as he spoke causing Lorelai to tear up. When he asked what was wrong, she just waved it off as hormones making her emotional.

"I don't think this is making any difference," Luke admitted after a few minutes.

"Wait another minute," Lorelai insisted.

"I see what you're doing," Luke replied, a hint of a smirk on his face. "You just want me to stay down here with you, can't even let me shower."

"Well I do like looking at you." She placed her hand next to his that rested on her baby bump. "Another minute or two." A grin started to spread across her face when she felt a small movement. She looked up at Luke who had a similar grin on his face. "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah," Luke whispered in astonishment. "I did."

"Pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Amazing," Luke added on while he hand stroked over the swell of her belly that was covered with one of his flannel shirts. "Our baby."

"Little-No-Name."

"You do realize that we can't actually name the baby Little-No-Name, right?" Luke asked.

"Aw, but I thought it had a certain ring to it," Lorelai answered.

"Of course." He first pressed a kiss to her belly, smiling when he felt their baby move once more, then pressed a kiss to her lips. "Need anything before I head upstairs?"

Lorelai shook her head, "Baby and I are good." She then pushed herself up from her lying down position and proceeded to stand. "But we will follow you upstairs since you insist that the name can't be Little-No-Name, I have more names to search through."

"Come on Crazy Lady."

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed! As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites. Hope you enjoy this update.**

* * *

Lorelai took a moment to herself before she eased out of the driver's side of her jeep and made her way up to the front door of her parent's house. Reaching out with her gloved hand, she rang the doorbell and waited out in the cold to see why her mother had requested that she stop by this afternoon. She had been in Hartford with Sookie running a few errands and doing a little shopping for the inn, when her mother called and not so much asked but demanded that she find a way to come by this afternoon. Since she was already close by and Sookie had driven her own car and was eager to get back home to her husband and baby, Lorelai agreed to stop by on her way home. Her mother didn't tell her why she needed to come by just that she did and it should be today.

Lorelai figured that while she was here for whatever reason that her mother concocted up, she could try to pry again and figure out exactly what was going on between her parents. Both she and Rory were worried and despite her best attempts to try and get her mother to actually open up to her, she still knew nothing. They didn't have the relationship that she did with Rory, they weren't the type of mother and daughter to talk openly and personally with one another without drastic measures but that didn't mean she couldn't try. Of course her mother was stubborn so she already knew that this conversation wouldn't get too far.

It didn't talk long for the door to open and for the maid-of-week to invite her inside. When the maid skittered away without bothering to take her coat and purse or letting Emily know that she had a visitor, Lorelai knew by the time that Friday night dinner rolled around, she would be replaced. Instead she left her purse, gloves, and coat on the coat rack beside the door before venturing further into her parent's house to find her mother. As she passed through the empty living room, her stomach rumbled at the sight at the sight of a plate of pastries on the table. Since she hadn't eaten much while she and Sookie shopped because she was planning on stopping by the diner once she was back in Stars Hollow, she plucked a pastry from the top of the pile and began to snack on it while she searched for her mother.

"Mom?" Lorelai called, walking through the house and simultaneously munching on her pilfered snack. She heard what sounded like a muffled 'Lorelai' and tried to follow the sound.

Her mother found her first, not so much looking for her but standing in the upstairs hallway and munching on a pastry, careful not to spill any of it on the floor. The crumbs that did fall, landed on her sweater. Surprisingly, Emily didn't say anything about that and just gestured for her daughter to follow her. Lorelai thought they were going to remain upstairs since that's where she found her mother but Emily stepped past her, led her back downstairs, and directed her to the basement all the while mentioning that she was doing a little spring organizing, despite it being the start of the new year and nowhere near spring.

Lorelai eyed the knick-knacks and furnishings that cluttered the basement, many courtesy of her grandmother Trix, before she turned to her mother. "What was so important down here that I just had to stop by?"

Emily crossed the room, bypassing two dog statues and a fish lamp perched on a table that Lorelai had never seen in her life but was pretty sure her mother hated it, and stopped at a wooden rocking chair. "I wanted to give you this."

Lorelai didn't get a good look at the chair before launching into her reasoning for not taking the chair. "Oh no Mom, you are not pawning another one of Gran's gifts to you onto me. Because the next time she drops by, you'll need it back and for me to bring it all the way back here whenever you call. You can keep the chair, along with any of the other outrageous gifts she gave you. Does that one also have some animal carved into it that she knew you would hate?"

"This isn't from your grandmother Lorelai," Emily replied sternly. "I'm giving you this because I want you to have it."

"Or are you giving this to me so it will be one less item in your basement?"

"Honestly Lorelai. Is it that hard for you to accept that I want to give you a gift?"

"Well we're standing in a basement full of things you hate that only see the light of day when Gran decides to visit, so I just jumped to the conclusion that this is another one of her gifts that you were going to re-gift me," Lorelai answered. "It wouldn't be the first time, remember the hat rack?"

"This isn't the same as the hat rack," Emily defended herself. "If you won't want the gift then there's no reason that you needed to come by."

"No, mom, come on," Lorelai sighed. Her eyes roamed over the chair and it looked vaguely familiar. Then again with the way her mother shopped and the way furniture changed so often in this house, there was no telling where she saw it before. "You want to give me this chair."

"It's obvious that you don't want it."

"No, I do, I want it," Lorelai replied though she wasn't sure how much of that statement was true. "Now tell me about this chair."

Emily narrowed her eyes, carefully watching her daughter and trying to catch her in a lie. "You want this chair."

She nodded her head in response. "Yes."

The nursery could use a rocking chair she supposed. She could use it when she nursed the baby, for rocking their little one to sleep before bed, and a rocking chair was usually an essential piece in a nursery. Just recently she visited Kim's Antiques just to browse and see if there was anything in the inn's budgetary range that she could buy when Mrs. Kim had tried to talk her into buying a rocking chair that she was sure was overpriced. She said maybe with no real intentions of buying it before she left.

Emily ran her hand over the arm of the chair, her fingers tracing over the delicately carved wood. "This is the rocking chair that was in your nursery when you were little."

"So it is a re-gift," Lorelai pointed out.

Emily huffed then crossed her arms. "Are you done?"

"Sorry."

She uncrossed her arms and her hands went back to tracing the intricate details in the wood. "Like I said this was the rocking chair that was in your nursery when you were little. Then, of course, when you were older we had to move it out of the room because you would sit in it and see how hard you could rock it, it drove us crazy."

Lorelai gave a noncommittal shrug of her shoulders, "Had to start somewhere."

"Then when you had Rory, we put it in her nursery for you. Well that is as long as the nursery was actually used."

Her snide comment aside that touched on Lorelai leaving home at such a young age with Rory, Emily didn't mention that the nursery sat untouched for years after she left. That the various maids she hired weren't allowed to set foot into that room to clean, that sometimes she spent her time in there and in her daughter's room and hoped that they would come home, that she cleaned the rooms herself so she could keep them exactly the way they were. That it was only when Rory was older and too big for a nursery and they had established that they would come visit on holidays, that everything was carefully put up and stored away. No, none of that was mentioned.

"Yeah," Lorelai spoke softly, the memories came rushing back with the revelation of where she knew the chair from. The last comment from her mother went ignored.

How Rory loved to be rocked, how she introduced her to some of the greatest songs of all time by singing them to her, how she would retreat to the chair late at night, usually after an argument with her mother about the way she did things with Rory, and promise that things would be different one day and they wouldn't have the same strained relationship she shared with her mother.

Smiling at the memories and how much things had changed over the years, she joined her mother by the rocking chair. "But this wasn't in the nursery when you brought all that other stuff over."

"It was going to be but with your antics as a child and it sitting down here for years, it needed a few repairs. The incompetent guys at the repair shop couldn't repair it in a timely manner," Emily explained to her daughter. "Not that it mattered because you rejected my offer anyways."

"Not this again," Lorelai muttered under her breath and luckily she didn't think her mother heard. "I appreciated that you wanted to help but that was too much. You should have asked first. Luke and I have our plans."

"As you made abundantly clear more than once," Emily replied.

"Yes I did and we already argued. It's over. Dead. To be discussed no more."

"Still, I know now you may have not liked what your father and I tried to do for you," Emily said and Lorelai listened intently, trying not to respond with a resounding 'duh'. "But I would like it if you did accept this gift, if you would take it and use it in the nursery. Do you already have one?"

Lorelai shook her head, "No, we don't." They didn't have much of anything at this point, just the crib that Luke said would be finished in a few days and an old dresser. She had picked up a few things here and there, a couple of outfits and a stuffed animal or two but they still had a long way to go to prepare for their baby's arrival.

"Then there should be no problem in you taking this one. Every nursery needs a rocking chair."

"Well I would have to test it out first.

Lorelai replied as she eased down into the chair, one hand moving to rest on her baby bump. She had to admit that the chair was nice, it could use some cushions to make I more comfortable though. Unlike everything else her mother had tried to give her, this looked different. It didn't go along with the extravagance of the nursery before, it was simpler. Still it was beautifully made, just not really her mother's taste. With the few glimpses she had of the crib Luke was building, she felt the chair would match perfectly. She smiled when she felt the baby kick.

"Well baby definitely approves."

Emily smiled at her daughter, sitting down and making a makeshift seat out of an end table placed conveniently near the chair. "I'm glad. How are you feeling?"

"I'm good Mom," Lorelai answered. "Little No Name is good too. I actually have an appointment in a few days to check in on baby. We can find out if you're going to get another granddaughter or a grandson."

"You let me know?" Emily asked. "Or are you and Luke going to be one of those couples that doesn't want to know and wants it to be a surprise?"

"Oh no, I definitely want to know. I don't want it to be a surprise. I'll let you know," Lorelai promised.

Emily gave a curt nod of her head and a silence fell between the two ladies for just a moment before she decided to fill it again. "You know this is the first piece of furniture that your father and I bought when I found out I was pregnant with you."

"Really?" Lorelai inquired.

"Well your father and I were out shopping and he saw it and he had to buy it right away. He was very excited that he was going to be a father," Emily replied, wistfulness tinged her voice.

Lorelai was about to make a snarky and almost self-deprecating comment about how excited he must have been to be a father until she was his daughter who felt like she regularly disappointed them growing up but at the same time she saw that wall her mother had built around her start to crack for just a second. The wall that was always up between them, allowing them very few real bonding moments, and had developed even more with whatever situation she was currently dealing with. Whether it be the her father and his new business that took up most of his time lately or something else entirely, she wasn't sure but wanted to find out.

"Hey mom," Lorelai called softly to get her mother's attention since she was focused on something else entirely. "Is everything okay?"

"What do you mean Lorelai?" Emily asked but didn't wait for an answer before she barreled on. "Of course everything is okay. I'm fine. There's nothing for you to be worried about."

"Come on Mom, I'm trying to bond with you here. And yes it's foreign and something we don't have a great track record at but I'm trying here. There's obviously something going on between you and dad..."

"There's nothing going on between your father and me," Emily interjected.

"At Friday Night dinner you barely speak to one another unless you absolutely have to. You focus on me, Rory, or Luke. And now sometimes the baby, but you and dad don't talk," Lorelai pointed out. Which was true, her mother spoke to her father when it was absolutely necessary while they were around and then even that was very limited.

"Friday's are my time to spend with you and everyone else since we don't talk much during the week. Of course I'm going to talk to you at dinner. Your father and I have all week to talk, so what if we don't talk for a few hours on a Friday night?"

"If that is the case," Lorelai replied, shifting in her seat so she was facing more towards her mother. "Is this about his work? His new business partner Digger? I remember at Thanksgiving, you weren't too fond of how much he was working. Is it still that?"

"Lorelai," Emily replied sternly, the one that Lorelai usually took to mean as the conversation being over and done with.

Lorelai sighed, growing more frustrated with her mother by the minute. "I'm not the little kid anymore that can't know if her parents are fighting. If there is something going on you can tell me. You can talk to me. I'm here."

"There is nothing going on Lorelai," Emily stressed, looking away from her daughter as she did so. She focused on a painting on the wall from Trix that she absolutely despised.

"Well I think there is something going on."

"You would be wrong," Emily replied, her voice blunt and final showing that she was really done with the conversation now.

Lorelai blew out a harsh breath, shaking her head as she pushed up from the chair to a standing position. "Fine. I should get home. I'll send Luke by at some point to get the chair."

* * *

On her way home, her conversation with her mother replayed in her mind. She knew something more was going on but getting her mother to admit anything was an impossible task, akin to that of trying to get Luke to give her more than one cup of coffee now that she was carrying his child. Still she was determined to let everything drop just because her mom said that nothing was going on, something was clearly happening and she wanted to get to the bottom of it to try and help her parents. Maybe she could recruit Rory to team up with her and figure out what was going on, between the both of them they should be able to figure something out.

After making a quick trip by the inn to check in with Tom and his crew on the day's progress, Lorelai arrived at home and parked her jeep next to Luke's truck. As she entered the house and deposited her belongings by the front door, she headed into the kitchen and was greeted by the familiar and very welcome sight of Luke at the stove preparing them dinner. She greeted him with a kiss while he gratefully accepted before dropping a kiss to her belly and saying 'hello' to Little No Name.

"We really need to think of a name," Luke said, turning back to the stove and using a wooden spoon to stir together the sauce he had prepared.

Lorelai leaned back against the counter, her hand coming to rest on her baby bump while she watched Luke cook. "Well maybe someone should stop veto-ing all my names."

"We're not naming our child after a fruit," Luke replied firmly.

"That was a joke!"

He put a lid on top of one of the pots on the stove then turned to face Lorelai, "Just because you like apples now, it doesn't mean we can name our kid that."

"Again, that was a joke!" When she noticed that he was only teasing her and that he knew it was a joke all along, she pretended to pout. "You're not funny."

"I wasn't trying to be."

Lorelai watched on as he went back to fixing their dinner, some kind of pasta dish she presumed since she didn't ask. "You know it would help if someone would suggest more names than he would veto."

"I have suggested names."

"I never said that you didn't. You just vetoed more than you suggested," Lorelai replied. "Maybe it will be easier after our next appointment, at least we can narrow it down between boy names and girl names."

"We'll figure it out."

"Yeah." Lorelai moved away from the counter and headed towards the refrigerator. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before addressing Luke again. "I went by my mother's today," she informed him and waited for him to acknowledge her before she continued on. "She has a rocking char that she wants to give us. I think it would look good in the nursery. Can you go by there sometime to pick it up?"

"Yeah I can," Luke answered. "We can pick it up when we go to your parents for dinner." Noticing the look on Lorelai's face when he mentioned the weekly dinner, he followed that with, "Or are we not going this week?"

"No, we're going," Lorelai answered. "My mom and I just had a thing when I went over there today. Nothing big, I just think that there's something else going on that she's not telling me about. I think she needs someone to talk to and I don't know if she has anyone, but of course she's not going to talk to me."

"Doesn't she have friends in the DAR or whatever group she belongs to?" Luke asked.

"Yeah but she's one of those women, she knows how they gossip. She's not going to tell them anything personal," Lorelai replied.

Luke walked away from the stove and moved to stand in front of Lorelai. "I know you're worried about this but I don't want you getting too stressed out over this. You already have a lot on your plate and I'm worried about you and baby."

"Little No Name and I are okay, great even," Lorelai replied with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "We'll be fine babe."

Luke hesitated just a moment before replying. "Okay."

Lorelai settled herself onto one of the stools that surrounded the island in the kitchen while she watched Luke finish up their dinner. "Okay, so at least part of my day sucked but how was yours? Any crazy diner stories?"

Her conversation with her mother was slowly pushed to the back of her mind and a grin started to grow on her face while she listened to stories of Luke's day. Stories that involved Kirk pitching the idea once again that he could take care of a child, Lane being so helpful in the diner that he literally didn't know what to do with himself, and Taylor annoying him so much that it resulted in him being banned from the diner for at least a day. While she listened to his stories of the day, she did her part in helping with dinner which equated to putting the necessary ingredients together for a salad.

After a pause in the conversation about their days for Lorelai to chat with Rory about her first day back at school after winter break, the couple headed to the dining room table with Lorelai taking a detour to pick up her baby name book insisting that they each go ahead and make an individual list of names that would be compared at some point in the near future.

* * *

 **Next chapter will have the gender reveal. Your thoughts on the gender? I do have a list of potential names but haven't officially chosen the name yet. Also worked on the Emily/Richard story-line a bit with Lorelai trying to help, it is following S4 just bringing some things in sooner and a slightly different way to fix things later on.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Thanks for still sticking with this story!**

* * *

Lorelai sat with her legs hanging off the side of the examination table while Luke sat directly across from her, lounged out in an uncomfortable plastic chair. He appeared to be thoroughly engrossed in one of the many pamphlets that the doctor's office had to offer while she focused on the many pictures of babies that hung on the bulletin board behind him. Each picture had the baby's name scribbled beside it as well as the name of the doctor that delivered the baby, it was clear this was the office's way of boasting about their patients and showing off cute baby pictures. Though Lorelai had to admit that some of the babies on the way weren't cute at all, definitely mocking material worthy. Not like her and Luke's baby would be, they were both hot people and she knew that there was no way there could be anything less than the cutest baby in the entire hospital nursery.

Lorelai tugged on the sweater that covered her baby bump before her hand finally settled on the swell of her belly, feeling for any movements from the little one. "Do you still want to find out?"

"Hmm?" Luke asked, his attention now drawn to his pregnant wife instead of the pamphlet he held in his hands that detailed the beginning signs of labor and the proper procedure to follow.

"The gender," she specified. "I know you said before that you want to find out but do you still feel that way? It's okay if you changed your mind because I'm sure Jackson still has that button that declares you're stuck in the fifties."

"I already told you that I want to know," he assured her for the second time today. She had asked the same question when he picked her up at home for their appointment. "I have no need for a button, I want to find out."

"Good," Lorelai smiled, "Because I'm finding out either way. At least this way I don't have to hide it like Sookie, anything we buy can automatically go in the nursery and not out in storage. Which reminds me, do you have to get back to the diner right away or can you spare a little time?"

Even though he already knew the answer, at least he was pretty sure he knew what her answer was going to be, he asked, "Why?"

"Because I was thinking that I don't really have to go to the inn again today and after the appointment we'll have some time before we have to go to my parents for dinner so if you don't have to get back to the diner, we can go shopping," Lorelai explained to him. "And we can get lunch, lunch and shopping."

Luke pondered the idea and knew that there was no reason to say no to her idea of shopping and lunch. In fact, he had already scheduled for the afternoon off for last minute touch-ups on the crib. Honestly, he was finished with it but he wanted to give it another once over before presenting the finished product to Lorelai. Cesar, Lane, and Jess all assured him that it was fine to him to have the afternoon off because they were more than capable of handling the diner for the lunch and dinner rush. Plus they were severely lacking in anything baby which they could change today with this shopping trip. While shopping wasn't at the top of his list of things he wanted to spend his afternoon doing, he knew that this was a necessity. So he agreed.

"I don't have to get back, we can go shopping."

Lorelai clapped her hands together once and smiled. "Good because we really need to get ahead with anything and everything baby. We have almost nothing."

"I'm aware," Luke acknowledged before another thought crossed his mind. "Don't pregnant women usually have baby showers where they get all kinds of gifts?"

"You're suggest we mooch off our friends for free baby stuff?" Lorelai question, her eyebrow arched along with her questioning tone.

"If it saves us from buying everything."

She laughed at that. "Well I'm not sure if I'm the one that supposed to arrange it. I arranged Sookie's with Rory's help. I don't know if you can arrange one for yourself just for the gifts."

Luke just gave a shrug of his shoulders in response because he knew even less about baby showers than he did. He did, however, know plenty about pregnancy thanks to his reading of the books he kept on his nightstand. Soon after, the doctor walked into the room and greeted the happy couple. She then instructed Lorelai to lay back on the table and lift her sweater just enough for the ultrasound. Lorelai lay back on the examination table and once she was comfy, she obeyed the doctor's instructions by lifting her sweater while answering the general check-up questions about her pregnancy up until this point. Once the doctor confirmed everything she was feeling was normal for this stage of pregnancy, she moved on to questions about the appointment today, wondering if they wanted to find out the gender since Lorelai was now far enough long.

"We want to find out," Lorelai answered, turning her head to look at Luke who gave a nod of his head as confirmation.

"Okay then, let's get started," Dr. Montgomery said, turning around to make sure the equipment was in place.

Lorelai tensed slightly when the cold, blue gel touched the exposed skin of her belly. The tension was gone seconds later as the doctor began to move the ultrasound wand over the swell of her belly and soon the fuzzy black-and-white image began to form on the screen. With the doctor's movements the picture on the screen soon became clearer and when Lorelai asked to hear the baby's heartbeat, the doctor complied. Soon a gentle, whooshing sound filled the room as they watched the screen change with the doctor's movements of the wand; their baby moved around on the screen causing Lorelai to smile since she could feel the same, small movements.

"I have a pretty clear view here and I'll be able to tell you the gender," Dr. Montgomery explained, turning to face the couple. "That is if you still want to know, last chance if you want to back out and not find out."

"No backing out," Lorelai replied and Luke agreed.

"Okay," the doctor nodded her head and turned back to the screen. She moved the wand again and spoke just a few seconds later. "Congratulations, you're having a boy."

"A boy," Lorelai parroted, her voice barely above a whisper. She tilted her head in Luke's direction and watched him as he watched the screen. A smile started to form on her face when she noticed that Luke had started to grin as he heard the news.

Her attention as quickly called back to the image of the baby on the screen instead of her husband when the doctor pointed out exactly where on the screen that they could tell they were having a boy. She quickly thought back to the lists in her purse, one for girl names and one for boy names, and knew that the girl name list as pretty much useless at this point. She hadn't cared either way really, just wanting a happy and healthy baby. Still she was absolutely thrilled over the news and turned back to Luke once again.

Luke looked down at Lorelai who smiled up at him over the very recent news. He knew that he was smiling as well but no smile could match the bright and happy one on her face. "We're having a boy," he repeated the doctor's words.

"I know, I heard," Lorelai replied softly. She reached for Luke's had and took it in hers, intertwining their fingers. "We'll have a Luke Jr."

"Oh decided on a name already?" the doctor asked, taking her eyes off the screen and tuning to the couple.

Lorelai shook her head then turned back and watched her baby's movements on the screen. "Nope. I just like to tease him. He already vetoed naming the child after himself."

Dr. Montgomery nodded her head. "I see. Well not to worry because you still have enough time to figure out a name." She moved the wand around Lorelai's baby bump and intently watched the screen. "Everything else looks great here, nothing to be concerned about. Everything seems to be right on track, your baby is healthy and growing."

Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. Though she didn't think anything was wrong because she hadn't ran into any problems at this point, it was still nice to hear that there was nothing to worry about. "Good, that's good."

"Do you want pictures from today?" Dr. Montgomery asked. When Lorelai and Luke both nodded their heads, she took the time to print off a few pictures and handed them over to the happy couple. "Here you go."

"Thank you," Lorelai replied, flipping through the images.

Dr. Montgomery quickly made work of sanitizing and putting the equipment back in it's rightful place before handing Lorelai a tissue to clean herself up. She chatted with the couple, going over specifics about what might occur in the coming weeks before her next appointment. After a few minutes, she left the couple alone with instructions to stop by the front desk and set up another appointment a few weeks from now before she left. Once the door closed, Lorelai pulled her sweater back down and passed the tissue off to Luke to throw away while she pushed herself into a seated position.

"I don't know anything about raising a little boy," Lorelai commented as Luke grabbed her hand and helped her off the examination table. "I've only raised a little girl."

Luke grabbed Lorelai's coat that she had thrown onto a chair when they came into the room earlier and helped her to put it on. When her hair became accidentally tucked into the back of her coat, he gently pulled it out until the dark curls fell against the pink fabric of her coat. "I've never raised a baby, boy or girl."

Her smile didn't falter as she turned back around to face Luke while trying to button her coat over her curvier figure. "Touché."

He watched as she grew frustrated with her coat now that the button seemed strained when she finally managed to button it up. He smiled at her when she looked up at him, placing his hand on the small of her back, he began to guide her out of the room. "We'll figure this out together."

"Yes we will," Lorelai agreed. "Now, let's go shopping for our little boy."

* * *

Lorelai skimmed her fingers over the rack of baby clothing she stood in front of, all various shades of blues and greens, and finally selected a dark blue onesie decorated with tiny rockets and added it to the ever-growing pile in Luke's arms. While Lorelai continued sifting through the many clothing racks of impossibly tiny clothing, Luke followed behind her accepting everything that she liked for their baby and occasionally pointing out stuff that he liked. And even though he knew that babies were very small, he still couldn't believe that the tiny pairs of jeans that Lorelai cooed over could ever fit anybody. One thing he did speak up about when Lorelai wanted to add it to their 'to-be-bought' pile was the shoes she saw and absolutely loved. He didn't see the need for shoes for a baby who would never actually use them since the baby wouldn't walk for a while.

Lorelai dropped a couple pair of cozy looking pajamas on the pile of baby clothes Luke already held while she turned to him. "Can you believe that they don't have any tiny flannels?"

"We don't need any tiny flannels," Luke replied.

Lorelai gasped as if Luke had truly offended her. "Our son has to match his father. He should have at least one flannel and even a tiny baseball cap. That he will wear backwards of course."

He had no intention of matching his clothes to that of his unborn son's but he didn't stop Lorelai from talking more about tiny flannels and baby baseball caps and how once he was born there would be a day where she would bring him by the diner in a matching outfit to that of his dad's. The excited gleam in her eyes held him back from completely shutting down the idea. Besides he was still reeling over the fact that he was going to have a son.

Before Lorelai, he never really gave any thought to children. Unlike others, he didn't dream of the day that we would have children and teach them the things that he knew. But with Lorelai, all of that had changed and now he was going to have a son. Now he could be one of those people that could imagine teaching their kids things that they knew. He could see himself teaching his son to play catch and taking him fishing when he was old enough. Certain things that Lorelai didn't exactly enjoy but that he could share with his son. He was shaken from his thoughts when he heard Lorelai's voice.

"Hey, where did you go?"

"Hmm, what?" Luke asked. Confused by her question, he replied, "I didn't go anywhere, I'm right here."

"Physically yes you're here, but you had that glazed over look in your eye like you were thinking about something," Lorelai pointed out. "You missed my entire rant on why there are no tiny flannels here and my questioning on if there is a baby lumberjack store somewhere so our child could match his father."

Luke shook his head, "Nothing. I was just thinking."

She watched him carefully trying to determine if anything seemed off. "Good thoughts? Everything okay?"

"Everything is okay," Luke was quick to reassure her. With how quick her moods could change sometimes thanks to the pregnancy hormones, he didn't want her to worry when there was nothing to worry about. "Just a little in my head."

"You sure?" Lorelai asked.

"I'm sure," Luke replied. He gestured to everything he was holding for her. "Ready to go yet?"

Lorelai shook her head in response to his question. "Oh no this was just the clothing part. The tip of the iceberg. There's plenty more baby stuff that we need and lucky for us, we have the afternoon free to do more shopping than just this," she replied, gesturing to the several tiny and colorful outfits that Luke held.

"We do have to go to your parents for dinner tonight," Luke gently reminded her.

"And we will have plenty of time to finish up here and then go to dinner," Lorelai casually replied. When she noticed the look on his face, the one he wore when they did go shopping together and her excursions ran longer than intended and he was ready to go home, she added on. "Okay, I know you're not the biggest fan of shopping and that I do tend to drag you along sometimes but I promise this won't be too much longer and this will be for our baby."

"Well I'm not dying to do all the shopping but I like doing it with you," Luke replied.

"I know you do babe."

Shifting around everything he already held in his arms and knowing that Lorelai was nowhere near done for today, at least until they had to leave as not to be late until dinner, he wondered how he was going to carry anything else if she decided they needed to buy more. "This is a little bit much."

"Babies needs a lot of things," Lorelai defended her actions. "But for now, we can ask someone to hold this stuff for us while we continue shopping."

With that Luke followed Lorelai throughout the store until they found a store employee that agreed to store everything for them until they were ready to check out. After dropping off the clothes, Lorelai grabbed Luke's hand and navigated him through the store until they came to the many different strollers that the store had to offer. While they made a promise that one wouldn't be purchased today since Luke was certain that they needed to shop around because the prices on strollers were ridiculous and they certainly couldn't be worth that much money, Lorelai still wanted features explained to her. One of her favorites being one with a cup-holder that she claimed would be perfect for a cup of coffee on strolls through town she could take with their child. Of course, Luke would be by her side during the strolls.

During their shopping, Lorelai did try to make a call to Rory to update her on the latest happenings since she requested that she wanted to be the first person to know whether her future sibling was going to be a boy or a girl, but she had a little trouble getting Rory to answer her phone. Though she knew that Rory was busy with classes so her phone calls were bound to go unanswered. And since this was news that she didn't want to text because it was really more of face-to-face news, or rather voice-to-voice if it was a phone call, she decided that if all else failed, she would simply find a way to tell Rory before she revealed the news to her parents.

* * *

Later that night, after a surprisingly uneventful Friday Night dinner, Lorelai and Rory were camped out on the couch with a carefully selected movie playing in the background but it went pretty much unnoticed by both the mother and daughter. Though in their defense it was more of a guilty pleasure which meant movie night rules didn't really apply. Luke and Jess had been invited to join them as well and while Jess opted out, which Rory explained by saying they were spending the next day together since he didn't have to work, Luke was cajoled into joining them but fell asleep in the armchair just a few minutes into the movie. Lorelai had tried to make him go up to bed to sleep but he insisted on staying down there with her and Rory for the time being.

Though Friday Night dinner was uneventful, meaning that no major arguments broke out, Lorelai did manage to spill the beans to her parents on their role as grandparents to a grandson in just a few months time. She had managed to tell Rory just before they went in for drinks since they just happened to arrive at the same time; meaning that Lorelai made it appear like they arrived at the same time by making Luke wait outside with her until Rory showed up. While Emily started to pry on whether or not they had picked a name yet, Richard was sure he was going to have a strong grandson that would attend Yale just as he did. Luke was uncomfortable with the college talk especially since their baby wasn't even born yet but Lorelai assured him that it was just a joke, as much as her father could joke anyways and there wasn't anything set in stone about their child's future when it came to education.

"So I'm going to have a little brother," Rory commented, pulling her legs up onto the couch and tucking them underneath her while she turned to face her mother.

"Yep," Lorelai smiled at her daughter. Her hand was in what was now it's usual resting spot at the top of her baby bump. "In a few more months you will be the big sister to a little brother."

"And let me guess, Luke already vetoed naming the child after himself?" Rory asked knowingly.

"Of course," Lorelai replied, casting a glance over at her sleeping husband. "I tried to reason and say that I already have you and your named after me so now he would have the chance to have a child named after himself, since guys do that all the time, but he said he didn't want to name a child after himself."

Rory nodded at her mother's explanation. Well her mother's version of Luke's explanation. "Well I'm just excited to be a big sister." In the back of her mind she did remember her father's child that was born much earlier in the year, Gigi, but since she rarely spoke to her father, she had no connection with her little sister. At least not really. "Well a big sister to a sibling that I'll actually see on at least a weekly basis."

"Right, and he's already lucky to have a great big sister that I'm sure will have no problems helping out with diaper duty whenever she comes home from Yale," Lorelai commented, making sure to give her daughter a smile along with the pushy suggestion.

"I guess I'll have to learn to change a diaper by that point."

"I'm sure Sookie wouldn't mind an extra set of hands at her house."

"Maybe tomorrow," Rory replied, going along with her mother's idea. She smirked, though it was mainly for show and to mess with her mother. "Besides there is something that I do need to discuss with her."

"Something that involves me and my unborn child and presents?" Lorelai asked, shifting in her seat so she was facing more in her daughter's direction. "Something that would be thrown in my honor?"

Rory gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, "I don't know. I can't say. Maybe I'm just going over to Sookie's to hang out with her, Jackson, and Davey. I haven't seen that much of her since I started going to Yale."

Lorelai tilted her head as she watched her daughter and tried to study her expression. "You know, you're not a very good liar. Tell me what's going on. I am carrying your sibling after all."

"You cannot use that excuse for everything. Last time I was here, you used that so I wouldn't eat the last of the ice cream."

"I have to use the pregnant lady excuse while I can."

"Well the pregnant lady excuse is not going to get me to spill on what I may or may not be planning with Sookie the next time I talk to her," Rory replied.

"Please? For your favorite mother? You are my favorite daughter."

"You're lucky that you're not having a girl this time because that wouldn't work anymore."

"So the favorite daughter thing is working."

"Nope," Rory replied with a bright smile. She then faked a yawn and even threw in a few stretches for good measure as she stood up from the couch. "Classes all day then a big dinner really wears a girl out, I really think that I should go to bed. Rest up, my schedule for the next couple of weeks is really busy."

"Don't walk away from me Rory," Lorelai called after her daughter.

"Too far away," Rory called back from the hallway as she made her way to her room. "Can't hear you."

Lorelai would have gotten up from the couch and went after her daughter but with her current position on the couch, she knew that she wouldn't get up in time to catch up with Rory. Plus it had been a long day and she was tired. Instead when she managed to get up from the couch, she walked over to Luke and gently shook him by placing her hand on his shoulder until he woke up.

"Hey sleepyhead," Lorelai whispered softly. "Let's go to bed."

"I was watching the movie," Luke insisted through a yawn.

"No, honey, you weren't," Lorelai replied as he got up from the chair and began to head towards the staircase. "You were pretty out of it very early on into the movie."

He yawned. "Long day."

She chuckled, "Yes long day for you. Exciting day too."

"We're having a son."

She nodded then turned around to smile at him. "We're having a son."

* * *

 **A boy! Hope you enjoyed! As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Thanks for all the support! Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"I come bearing danishes and coffee," Lorelai declared as she walked through the front door of Sookie's house. Michel fell in line behind her, his arms full of various samples of fabric and crown molding for the inn as well as Lorelai's detailed notebooks on all the renovations for the Dragonfly.

"She's using me as her pack mule," Michel called out as he struggled not so silently under the weight of everything he was carrying. When Lorelai offered to pick him up for their meeting, he should have known that it meant she just needed his help and it wasn't so much a favor on her part.

Lorelai had a smirk on her face when she turned to face him as they entered the living room. "So does that mean you're an ass?"

While Michel scowled at Lorelai and stepped by her to place the molding and fabric samples and notebooks down on a vacant arm chair, Sookie cleared her throat and alerted them to her and Davey's presence on the couch. Davey was wrapped up in a blue blanket and cradled in his mother's arms as he snoozed away, unaware of everything going on around him.

"Don't be loud," Sookie whispered and then gestured to her sleeping son. "And there's little ears present, no bad words."

"Sorry," Lorelai apologized in a whisper. She knelt down as best as she could with her growing baby bump and set the box of danishes and the loaded coffee tray down on the coffee table. "Thought I would provide some refreshments this time."

"Or Luke would," Sookie teased, noting the familiar yellow logo on the side of the cups.

"You caught me," Lorelai replied. She eased herself down on the couch next to Sookie. "But I did the work of asking him for the refreshments and then I brought them over, it was 50-50."

"I have refreshments too," Sookie announced and Michel groaned. "Be quiet," she snipped. "No one said that you had to eat them. You can keep fit and trim and have no voice over what we'll serve at the Dragonfly." An excited smile crossed her face as she slightly shifted to look at Lorelai. "I have so many ideas."

"Good," Lorelai smiled back. "Are you ready to begin or..." she trailed off and made a deal of pointing out the snoozing baby still in her friend's arms.

Sookie looked down at Davey and back up at Lorelai then let out a small giggle. "Oh right, let me go lay him down and then we can start."

When Sookie exited the room to go put Davey to bed, Lorelai reached out for one of the coffee cups on the table. Since Luke didn't want to take any chances, he filled all of the take-out cups with decaf. In addition to hers, she picked up an extra one and held it out in Michel's direction.

"Coffee?" she asked before lifting her cup to her lips and taking a long sip.

"Every meeting doesn't have to be a tasting," Michel gave as his answer.

"Not a tasting, this is just a meeting with refreshments," Lorelai refuted. She carefully waved the cup as close to him as she could get from her seated position. "And this is just coffee. It's decaf and there has been nothing added to it so you can keep your trim and fit lifestyle."

Michel reached for the cup. "Decaf?"

"Hey, with baby it's all I get so it's all you get," Lorelai replied. She placed her coffee cup down on the table while she reached for a danish. "I could offer you a pastry but..."

"They're fattening," Michel interjected.

"Is he still going on about that?" Sookie asked as she reentered the living room, shuffled across the floor, and then swiftly entered the kitchen only to emerge seconds later with a platter full of delicious looking treats. "We'll just keep these between us."

"Sounds good to me," Lorelai proclaimed, reaching for one of the treats that Sookie offered despite already holding a danish in her hand. "I had an early lunch, I'm starved."

Sookie grabbed a cup of coffee from the tray as well as a cherry danish that Lorelai brought over and settled back on the couch. "Well between Davey and prepping for this meeting, I haven't had time for lunch yet."

"Speaking of meetings," Michel spoke up causing the ladies to turn towards him. "Are we ever going to start this one, some people have places to be. We have limited time together."

Sookie waved off his concern with her free hand. "Michel, we have plenty of time."

"Right," Lorelai agreed with a nod of her head. "We'll have refreshments." From the glare that Michel gave her, she tacked on, "Fine, Sookie and I will have refreshments, a small tasting of what she made, and you can just sit there. Then we'll have the meeting and discuss what we need to and as an extra effort, we'll keep the baby talk to a minimum."

Michel silently agreed while Sookie leaned forward and pressed a hand to her friend's baby bump as she lowered her head down to whisper to the unborn baby. "Speaking of baby talk, how is my second favorite little boy today? This is your Aunt Sookie, your future best friend's mommy."

Michel made a low, groaning noise even though the question was not directed at him. Lorelai proceeded to roll her eyes at him. "Okay Michel, we get it, you hate babies."

"I don't hate babies," Michel argued.

"Yes you do," Sookie shot back. "Last time you were here I tried to get you to hold Davey and you absolutely refused. You made him cry."

"I was wearing a new shirt. He would have ruined it," Michel defended his actions from just a week prior. "And he cries a lot."

"No, he does not. You take that back!"

"Okay, settle down Mama Bear," Lorelai cooed as if she were talking to Davey instead of his mother. Her hand went to Sookie's shoulder and guided her back down onto the couch that she had launched up from at Michel's assessment of Davey. "To make everyone happy, we'll put the baby talk on hold for now. At least until Michel leaves. The baby talk will just be between people who actually like babies. Besides we do have plenty to discuss about the inn."

"I don't hate babies," Michel piped up once again.

Accepting that Michel didn't hate babies though the jury was still out on that one because she had more than enough evidence to back up hers and Sookie's claims, Lorelai began to fill both of her colleagues/friends on everything that was currently going on with The Dragonfly. Though Sookie already knew most of what was going on because of her many phone calls with Lorelai and her own visits to the inn, mainly to check in on the progress of the kitchen, Michel was just a tad bit more in the dark. He was quickly informed of what was already finished, though it wasn't much, and the next steps that were going to be taken in their journey to make their dream of opening their own inn come true.

Crown molding has the first thing decided upon and promptly put aside as Lorelai jotted the notes down in her notebook as a reminder to tell the crew at the Dragonfly the next time she made a visit. And though it was pretty early to start thinking about the decoration of the inn when it came to details such as pillows and various knick-knacks, Lorelai was planning on doing some of the grunt work herself in order to help save them some money. So that meant sewing pillows and even curtains to avoid any extra charges but not sacrificing the look of a great and one-of-a-kind inn. Plus since the opening of the inn just happened to fall around her due date, a time in which she knew she would be busy preparing for her baby's arrival, she wanted to jump right in into anything she could personally do for the inn before that time came.

Unfortunately their meeting had to be cut short after Michel and Sookie got into an argument over her kitchen of all things, which Lorelai agreed was Sookie's domain and she should be allowed to do what she wanted with it withing budgetary reasons and that Michel shouldn't really have an input since he spent virtually no time in there compared to Sookie. Their argument proceeded to wake Davey up and once he was up, Sookie lost of train of thought and was solely focused on her baby while Michel announced that he didn't want to stay around a crying baby and that he needed to get back to his actual job that paid him money since his wallet was not yet padded by wages from the not yet open Dragonfly.

Lorelai stuck around after Michel left, her intentions were to help Sookie out with little Davey and try to talk more about the inn with her at the same time. While Sookie tried to rock Davey back to sleep, Lorelai cleaned up the mess made from their coffee, danishes, and various sampling of treats that Sookie managed to throw together. While she cleaned and while Sookie was distracted, she tried to do a little snooping around of the baby shower that Sookie and Rory definitely were planning but found nothing. She did suspect that Rory would take any plans they had made back with her to Yale so they wouldn't be anywhere near her prying eyes. By the time her cleaning and snooping were done, Davey was just falling back asleep in his mother's arms. She quietly snuck back over to the couch and sat down as close as she could to her friend without disturbing the sleeping baby.

"I don't think he likes Michel," Sookie confessed.

Lorelai smiled and gently ran her fingers along Davey's cheek, he stirred for a second but stayed asleep. "Well Michel does take a while to grow on people. I didn't like him for a while after I met him."

"But now we can't open The Dragonfly without him," Sookie added on.

"Nope."

Sookie moved to get up from the couch. "Okay, I'm going to try this again," she indicated to trying to lay Davey back down to sleep. "Be right back."

Lorelai settled back into the couch cushions and started to flip through her Dragonfly notebook full of meticulous notes while Sookie left the room. There was still plenty of work to be done but so far everything seemed to be on track and every time she asked Tom, which was pretty much every time she talked with him, he assured her that everything would be as finished as scheduled. She was just jotting down a few more questions to ask Tom the next time she stopped by the inn when Sookie walked back into the room and unceremoniously plopped down onto the couch next to her.

Lorelai set her notebook to the side. "Something wrong hon?"

"No." Sookie kept quiet then blew out a long breath. "I mean yes. I mean. I mean..."

"To get to the point?" Lorelai guessed. For the moment she put aside any hope of talking about the inn. "Come on Sookie, tell me what's wrong."

"Okay" Sookie immediately paused and remained silent until she felt Lorelai poke her in the arm with her finger. "So you know I love Davey right?"

"Of course I know you love him," Lorelai replied. "You're not going to try to return him to the hospital are you? Because, believe me I have tried and it doesn't work."

"No, nothing like-," Sookie stopped mid-sentence. "Wait, you tried to return Rory to the hospital? When? I didn't know….you never said…."

"Sookie, calm down, I was joking," Lorelai interrupted as soon as she could to stop her friend's rambling. "That was a joke. I never tried to return Rory."

"Oh, ha-ha," Sookie said, now laughing at the joke she didn't get just seconds before. "I love Davey and I love spending time with him, and oh the other day he smiled for the first time and it was just the cutest thing. I have pictures! And he's adorable and Jackson loves him too," she gushed.

"He is adorable," Lorelai agreed. Because she could sense it coming, she added on, "But?"

"But I want a few hours without him," Sookie finished the sentence. "Not that I don't want to spend time with him because I do, I love him, but Jackson and I haven't had much alone time together since Davey has been born and I want to spend a little time with him just without Davey."

"Then go out."

"I can't just go out!" Sookie argued. "I can't leave Davey alone, he's just a baby."

Lorelai smiled at her friend. "Okay, how about this? Ask me to watch Davey while you go out."

"You would do that for me?" Sookie asked.

Lorelai nodded her head. "Of course, and the best thing about asking me is that you already trust me and you don't have to pay me."

Sookie smiled, "Those are good reasons."

"And I don't think Luke and I have anything planned soon so I can bring him with me, it will be double the babysitters. Davey will be in great hands," Lorelai replied. "So you and Jackson go can go out for dinner, maybe a movie as well, and we'll be here watching over little Davey. It's a good plan."

Sookie agreed that it did sound like a good plan. "You're sure you don't mind?"

"I wouldn't offer if I didn't want to do it."

"Are you sure?" Sookie asked once again. "I know that you have a lot going on with your baby, the inn, your parents."

"Sookie, please go out with Jackson," Lorelai practically begged at this point. "It's one night, I'll be fine with watching Davey."

Sookie grinned then clapped her hands together excitedly. "I'll tell Jackson as soon as he gets home."

"Good," Lorelai returned her friend's expression. "This works out for me too because It will give me the chance to see what it's like parenting a little boy and it gives Luke some baby practice."

"As long as you promise not to screw up my kid," Sookie replied. "Because that is mine and Jackson's job."

Lorelai held her hand up as if to promise her that way. "He'll be the same Davey that you left me with."

Sookie launched herself at Lorelai, wrapping her arms around her in an awkward hug. "Thank you."

"No problem Sookie. You and Jackson should go out."

Sookie unwrapped her arms from around her friend. "We haven't been out in ages, this will be so great."

"Yes it will," Lorelai reassured her friend. "And once my baby is born, you can pay me back by watching our little one while Luke and I go out."

"Consider it a favor!"

"Great." Lorelai reached to the side for her Dragonfly notebook. "I know this is exciting and you probably want to plan your date night but we barely discussed anything about The Dragonfly today, I think we need to focus on that right now, at least for a few minutes."

Sookie had a slight frown on her face. "But Michel isn't here."

"Well if you two hadn't gotten into an argument earlier then we could have discussed things a little bit sooner but you two fought and now here we are," Lorelai pointed out. She thought she sounded a little harsher than originally intended but Sookie didn't seem to notice. "So can we focus now?"

"I'm fully focused!"

* * *

Luke wiped the rag down the length of the crib railing one final time before stepping back to examine his own handiwork. Over the course of the week since learning they had a little boy on the way, he spent his free time working on finishing the little amount of detail work he had left on the crib. There wasn't much to be done and he finished up rather fast but he wanted to make sure that everything was how it planned it to be before he presented it to Lorelai. Though she had seen it when it was still a work in progress, she hadn't seen it in the recent weeks since he wanted to surprise her when it was finished.

With the help of Jess, he had moved the crib from his workspace up to the room they designated for the nursery. He even managed to purchase a mattress for the crib on his break from the diner earlier today. He had to admit that the dark stain he applied to the wood worked well with the pastel yellow that covered the walls. It was only after he had applied the first coat of the stain that he realized it was named after Lorelai's favorite beverage. Which he deemed fitting for their child's crib. He wasn't too sure about the placement of the crib in the room since Lorelai was always better at the interior design thing but he could move it himself without any problems if they needed to switch up the layout of the furniture in the room. For presentation purposes, the rocking chair supplied by Emily and Richard was placed right beside the crib though, again, he was open to moving the furniture around the room if Lorelai wanted to do so.

When he heard his name being called by Lorelai, he turned around and exited the room of his soon-to-be-born son and pulled the door shut behind him. He descended down the staircase and into the living room where he found Lorelai dumping her belongings down onto the couch before plopping down on the couch herself while kicking her shoes off and throwing her feet up on the coffee table all in one move. When he moved to the end of the couch, she turned her head to the side to face him.

"What are you doing home?" she asked. "I thought you were working the dinner rush tonight."

"I am, I'm going to head back over there in a few minutes," Luke answered the question. "But there was something I needed to do here first." He extended his hand to her. "Come on, there's something I want to show you upstairs."

She didn't make any indication that she wanted to reach for his hand. "Luke, I'm not in the mood."

"Not that." He continued to extend his hand towards her, eventually stepping closer once she indicated that she would go along with whatever he had planned. He took his hand in hers and pulled her up from the couch despite her protests that she wasn't pregnant enough to need help up yet. "There's something I want to show you."

"Can't you just tell me what you want to show me?" Lorelai asked as she followed him through the living room and then up the staircase. "My feet hurt."

He replied in the form of a question. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think spent too much time on my feet walking around the inn," Lorelai answered. "I'll be fine. Just show me what you want to show me."

When they reached the stop of the staircase, Luke turned around to face Lorelai. "I wanted to show you the crib."

"You finished?" Lorelai asked, her mood slightly improved from mere seconds earlier even though her feet were still hurting her. "I want to see."

"So now you want to see?" Luke replied, a small smirk crossed his face.

"Well if you would have told me, I wouldn't have complained," Lorelai replied. She nearly rolled her eyes at the look Luke gave her. "Okay, so I might have still complained but I do want to see. Show me."

Luke took her hand in his again as he led her to the closed nursery door. "Now if you don't like where I put it, we can move it. I just put it there for now since I'm finished."

"Okay, okay, open the door," Lorelai gently demanded.

His hand feel from hers when he opened the door. Outside the room, he stepped to the side and placed his hand on the small of her back, leading her into the room. She stepped into the room and headed towards the wall that the crib was against. When she approached, her hand glided against the dark wood of the railing of the crib that was carved with intricate details. She moved around the crib, keeping one hand gliding against the new piece of furniture at all times. Her eyes went to the mattress in the crib and she made a mental note to buy bedding as soon as possible to bring the entire look together.

When her inspection of the crib was finished, she turned and moved back towards Luke who had spent the whole time standing in the doorway. "It's beautiful Luke. I love it."

"You think so?" Luke asked.

"Yes, I do think so," Lorelai answered. "Though I did not that there was no Gilbert the goat."

"He didn't fit into the construction of the crib, he'll have to stay on the chuppah for now."

She smiled. "It's perfect. Our son will definitely love sleeping in there."

"Good, I'm glad you like it."

"I love it," Lorelai corrected. She ran her hand along the side of his face before gently cupping his cheek and pulling his head down to hers. She leaned in for a quick peck on his lips. "Are you heading back to the diner now?"

"I was unless you wanted me to stay home, you mentioned you weren't feeling well."

"Just my feet," Lorelai reminded him, "And a little tired. But I'm fine. I'll order some chinese. Or pizza. Or chinese and pizza."

"I don't even want to think about the combination you'll make with those two," Luke grimaced. "Lane's working tonight, I can have her deliver something to you."

She shook her head. "No. I'm already set on my chinese and pizza combo."

Luke pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Call if you need anything though. It's almost time for the dinner rush, I should head over there."

"Okay, babe." When he turned to walk out of the nursery, she called out to him. "Oh and by the way, Sookie was talking about wanting to go out so I volunteered us for babysitting duty tomorrow night." She moved to step by him, hoping to literally sidestep his reaction but he followed her out of the room and towards their bedroom.

"You did what?" Luke asked.

Lorelai dug through her dresser drawers and pulled out a pair of sweatpants as well as the flannel of Luke's she claimed as hers. "Sookie was complaining about wanting a little time with Jackson so I offered to baby sit."

"You offered for us to baby sit."

"We're a package deal doll," Lorelai replied. She dropped the clothes in her hand down on the bed. "I know I should have asked you first but I thought it would be good for us to babysit for our friends." Luke stayed silent and watched her. "Look I know I sprung this on you so if you don't want to then you don't have to go with me. But I thought it could be good for us to take care of Davey for a night, some baby experience before ours arrives."

"You don't have to go alone, I'll go with you," Luke replied once she feel quiet. "I just wish you would have asked me first."

"Next time I will."

"Next time?"

"Not that there's going to be a next time soon," Lorelai quickly filled in. "But next time something comes up like this, I'll talk with you first."

"Okay," Luke gave a nod of his head. "I really should head to the diner now."

"Go, go," Lorelai replied, she moved around the bed and back to Luke. She rested her hand on her baby bump. "We'll be fine here."

With a kiss punctuated to her lips and then to her belly, Luke was out of their bedroom and headed back to the diner. Lorelai gathered her clothes from the bed and moved to strip off the pants and sweater that she wore but changed her mind and instead headed into the bathroom for a warm bath before dinner. She set her clothes down on the counter before moving to sit on the bathtub ledge to run her water.

After telling Sookie that they really needed to focus on the inn even if Michel wasn't there, they talked for maybe a few minutes without any real discussion on plans before Jackson walked in and Sookie launched into the fact that Lorelai agreed to baby sit and they could have their own little date night. Overhearing the two make plans, she knew that all hope was lost on holding an actual meeting today so she quietly excused herself and decided to head back to the inn to see the work in progress. During her walk-through, she made a few decisions on her own and jotted them down to run them by Sookie and Michel the next time there was a chance.

She knew that trying to go into business with a pregnant woman and trying to start a family of her own at the same time would take a ton of work and maybe they were just having an off day, but it was these off days that made her feel like she was putting a lot in without sharing much of the burden. Of course she understood that Michel had his own job and Sookie had a new baby but their meeting today that was really a sham more than a meeting dampened her spirits a little.

Shedding her clothes and slipping into the warm water, she allowed herself to relax and let the current worries wash away for now. She ran her hands over her belly and promised that she would try to talk to her other two colleagues and let them carry some of the weight that she felt she carried by herself at times. But for now, all she had on her mind was relaxing in the bath, letting the warm water do the job of soothing her achy feet, and the dinner that she would order once her bath time was over.

* * *

 **So not too much happened but basically a set-up for the babysitting adventures of Luke and Lorelai in the next chapter.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Thanks for all the feedback. Now it's time for some babysitting.**

* * *

Lorelai watched with an amused expression as Sookie buzzed around the living room all dressed up for her date night with Jackson while she rattled off all kinds of baby care instructions for Davey. The new mother shanghaied Lorelai as soon as she and Luke walked in and showed her where she kept everything for Davey, including clean clothes and fresh diapers, little toys she liked him to try and play with, and the blanket that she deemed as his favorite. From where they went into the living room where Davey actually was sleeping in the bassinet where Sookie went into detail on how long he had already been asleep and when he should wake up and when he should be hungry again. Which was soon. That led to a trip to the kitchen were Sookie showed her the bottles in the refrigerator with specific instructions on how to warm them up properly. Then again back to the living room where Sookie told Lorelai absolutely everything she could think of at the moment. And she meant everything.

Lorelai looked to her husband who look a little wigged out over everything Sookie was trying to cover though Lorelai doubted that they would need half of what she covered for just a few hours of babysitting. She gave him a reassuring pat on the arm before moving towards her friend and grabbing her hands.

"Sookie, I've raised a baby before. Rory, you've met her."

"Yeah, I did," Sookie agreed with a nod of her head. "She's great."

"She is. And it may have been awhile since she was Davey's age but a few things from that time stuck. I know the baby ropes here," Lorelai replied.

"You're sure?" Sookie questioned, doubt lingered in her eyes though she knew Lorelai was more than capable of watching Davey.

Lorelai gave her friend what she hoped was a reassuring grin. "More than sure honey." She moved back to her husband's side and latched onto his arm, more to soothe him than reassure Sookie. "You and Jackson go out and have some fun tonight. We'll be okay."

Jackson entered the room at that time after being ordered by Sookie to go and change his shirt. "Ready to go?" he asked. "Did you tell them about..."

As if she could read his mind, Sookie replied, "Yep, already covered that."

"And about..." Jackson prompted.

Sookie nodded her head. "I covered everything."

"And she means absolutely everything," Lorelai chimed in with a smile. "Seriously, everything I could want to know about Davey, I now know. Now you two are all dressed up, quite nice I might add, so go out, have fun, not too much fun though unless you want Davey to have a sibling this soon, and we'll be here to take care of Davey."

Jackson gestured with his heard towards Lorelai as he looked at Sookie, "She's right, we do need to go. I made a reservation."

"I know, I know," Sookie said as she exhaled. "I just don't want to leave him," she admitted, casting a glance over to the bassinet where he lay.

"I know you don't honey, but it's just a few hours," Lorelai replied.

And she knew exactly how she felt. Not that she really ever left Rory when she was growing up, especially when they still lived in the potting shed. But there were those rare instances where she did go out and worried about leaving Rory even if it was just to go out for a few hours and she knew that she was leaving her in the capable hands of Mia. Those were times when Mia offered to watch the young girl so Lorelai could have a little time that was all to herself.

"Go out with your husband," Lorelai continued. "You wanted this date night."

After a few minutes, Sookie finally relented and decided that they were already dressed up and ready for a night out so there was no sense in their plans going to waste. She walked over to her sleeping baby and planted kisses all over his face that slightly disturbed him but she backed away before he could fully wake up. Jackson followed her lead and planted a kiss on his son's cheek before slipping his hand to Sookie's lower back and guiding her towards the front door.

Just as she slipped one arm into the jacket that Jackson was helping her into, Sookie jerked away from him and turned to walk back towards the living room as she remembered one last thing. "Wait, there's something else..."

Lorelai used her pregnant belly almost as a shield when she stepped in front of Sookie and denied her any further entrance to the living room. "Go Sookie, we can handle this. Don't make me kick you out of your own house."

"No, I know," Sookie immediately replied. "I just wanted to say as a thank you for doing this, and I wasn't sure if you were going to eat before coming over, I made a few things and put them in the fridge. Instructions on how to warm them up are attached to each dish."

Lorelai smiled. "You're too good to me Sookie." She then put her hands on her friend's shoulders and gently turned her around the other way. "Now seriously, leave. Everything is under control."

With that, Jackson finally managed to help Sookie into her coat and soon they were out the door with promises to not stay out too late. As soon as the front door shut behind the couple, Lorelai turned on her heel and shuffled over to Luke who still looked a little wigged out over their babysitting duties. She pressed her hand to chest and smiled up at him.

"Don't start freaking out on me now, tonight should be a breeze," Lorelai assured him. She moved her hand from his chest and intertwined her fingers with him as she tugged him towards the bassinet. "See how peaceful he looks sleeping. So adorable."

He remembered Sookie's words from moments earlier. "But Sookie said that he'll wake up soon and that he'll be hungry."

"Right. And we'll feed him when that happens." She smiled down at Davey and even reached in the bassinet to caress his cheek with her finger. "But while he's still sleeping, I say that we go raid the fridge because I'm starving."

"You ate at the diner earlier, before we came over here," Luke pointed out.

"Yes I did, but we didn't come over here right after we left the diner. We went home first," Lorelai reminded him. "And that was a very early dinner, no one really eats that early except for the early-bird special which I'm no where near qualifying for. Plus one of the best parts about babysitting is raiding the fridge."

"And you would determine this how?" Luke asked as he followed his pregnant away from the bassinet and to the kitchen where she was busy doing what she swore was the best thing to do while babysitting.

"If I recall correctly you haven't eaten anything either, except for that apple you swore you ate but I never witnessed," Lorelai replied before she went on to answer his question. "It's just a proverbial truth. I wouldn't know from experience since I was busy raising my own child at the time some people were taking up babysitting but now's my chance to find out. And Sookie has food specially prepared for us, it's practically begging us to raid it."

Luke used the fact that Lorelai kicked her shoes off the moment Sookie let go of her friend after leading her through the house to his advantage as he peered just over the top of her head and into the refrigerator. He stepped back out of the way when Lorelai grabbed the aforementioned prepared dish and carried it over to the counter. He plundered through the fridge until he found the fixings for salad since he gladly took advantage of the fact that Lorelai willingly ate more vegetables in her pregnant state. With his hands full, he shut the refrigerator with a kick of his foot and walked over to the counter space that was occupied by Lorelai.

Just as Lorelai was beginning to read off Sookie's hand-written instructions, a small cry sounded from the living room. She passed the paper off to him. "Sounds like someone is up. I'll go get him."

While Lorelai headed out of the kitchen and back to the living room for Davey, he began to follow the instructions Sookie left on how to properly warm up her food. Though he didn't really care for the baby talk, he couldn't help but smile when he heard Lorelai calming the baby down with her version of baby talk. He turned around when heard her now talking to him since she addressed him by name and saw her cradling Davey close to her chest.

Lorelai shifted Davey in her arms, getting him comfortable before she moved towards Luke. "I think he wants to say hey to his uncle Luke." She stood beside Luke but looked down at Davey, "Isn't that right sweetie?"

When Lorelai looked at him, he knew that he should address the baby. And while he talked to their baby, he wasn't sure how to start to talk to Sookie's baby. "Hey buddy," he said softly.

Lorelai smiled at Luke then watched as Davey's eyes moved from looking at her face to following the sound of Luke's voice. He tried to focus on Luke but his eyes drifted back to Lorelai when she started talking again, cooing and using her baby talk to ask Davey how his day has been while also explaining to him that mommy and daddy were gone for a little while but she and Luke would take good care of him.

"Does he need anything?" Luke asked but turned back to what he was doing before. "Didn't Sookie say he would be hungry when he woke up?"

She gently bounced Davey in her arms and took her eyes off of him for just a minute to look up at Luke. "I think he's good right now. Might need a bottle in a minute but he seems content."

"Okay."

She chuckled when she felt her own baby kick against her and essentially Davey since she had to hold him close to her baby bump. "I think our child is jealous that I'm holding another baby."

The corner of his mouth lifted up into a smirk. "What makes you say that?"

"He's in there moving all around, kicking, I think he knows about little Davey," Lorelai whispered as if lowering her voice would somehow help.

Luke chuckled. He stopped what he was doing and moved a hand to her baby bump. "We'll just have to make sure that he knows you still love him even if you are cuddling another baby."

"That we will," Lorelai agreed.

She rocked Davey in her arms going back and forth between talking to him and trying to get him to crack a smile at her, though he never did, and watching over Luke as he prepared the dinner that Sookie had already prepared earlier in the day. A few minutes in, she declared that a certain baby was in need of a diaper change. She offered up the chance to Luke who had little to no experience in that area but he passed it up claiming that he would take it next time around. She promised to hold him to that as she left the kitchen and headed towards the nursery.

In the nursery, Lorelai laid Davey down on the changing table. She placed one hand protectively on his belly, holding him in place, as she reached for a clean diaper and laid it next to Davey on the changing table. She smiled at him as her hands started to remove the striped pants that he wore before moving to the snaps on his onesie.

"Hi sweetie," Lorelai cooed, her hands made quick work of undoing the snaps of the baby's dark blue onesie. "Let's get you out of this wet diaper."

She carefully pushed the onesie up just far enough to fully expose the diaper. She continued to coo and smile at Davey as her hands went to the tabs of the diaper and undid them. She informed him it's been a long time since she had to change anyone's diaper since his cousin Rory was out of diapers and toilet trained for years but it was just like riding a bike and he need not worry. Her side of the conversation was kept up as she tried to get Davey to smile at her while taking care of the wet diaper business. His side of the conversation was few coos and gurgles but no smiles. She gently lifted his legs and pulled the diaper out from underneath him. With one hand placed softly on his chest, she set the dirty diaper aside and reached for the clean one; all the while reminding Davey that he shouldn't worry because she had plenty of diaper changing experience and things were going smoothly so far.

And then a stream of liquid splashed on the side of her face.

Luke heard the squeal that definitely came from Lorelai and not a tiny baby and was quick to set down the food in his hand and make his way towards the nursery. He burst through the open doorway thinking that something was wrong but found that everything appeared to be normal. Davey was on the changing table which Lorelai stood in front of, a slightly shocked look on her face as her hands moved in a blur fastening a diaper unto Davey. She must have heard his movement because she whipped her head towards him, one hand protectively on Davey who made a big show of kicking his legs and waving his arms around.

"He peed on me!"

"What?" Luke asked bewildered but unable to stop a faint chuckle from escaping his lips that was the pure result of the look on her face.

"On my face!" Lorelai declared. "He peed on my face."

Luke moved closer to Lorelai, his eyes drifted down to the long-sleeved shirt she wore and he could see tiny droplets high on her chest. "He peed on you?"

"I took off his diaper and went to grab the other one and all of the sudden it was like 'Hello there!' and he peed in my face."

That statement seemed to sink in with Lorelai that time as she swiftly reached for a wipe with her free hand and hastily scrubbed at her face. She harshly scrubbed the wipe over her face, tinging her now make-up less face a light shade of pink. At that point she remembered that Davey still wasn't dressed and sine he had also managed to pee on himself, she used the same wipe to wash his legs and belly. She was more careful with him than she was with herself.

"Rory never peed in my face," Lorelai informed him while she did this. "I mean she did pee on me when she was this size but that happened after her bath and it was never in my face."

Luke recalled a few instances from the glimpses of Jess' childhood that he was there for, "You know I think I do remember Liz talking about something like this before."

"And you didn't think to warn me about that when I said I was going to change his diaper?" Lorelai asked, cutting her eyes back to Luke.

"I just thought about it!" He knew that if he were in her position, he wouldn't find this as funny as he found that look on her face at the moment. But he tried to stop himself from laughing. "Are you okay?" he managed to ask.

"No, I'm covered in pee," Lorelai pouted. She noticed the wet spots on Davey's clothes and gently stripped them off and tossed them to the side. "Hand me some more clothes for him?"

"Where are they?" Luke asked.

"Dresser," Lorelai answered. "First drawer, he really only needs a onesie. His pants are still clean."

Luke moved in front of the dresser and opened up the first drawer. Behind him he could hear Lorelai once again talking to Davey, this time about what just happened, and could hear Davey make little noises while she spoke to him. He shook his head when he began to rummage through the onesies and noted that they were plenty of ones decorated with vegetables. He finally grabbed a red one that looked about the right size and passed it off to Lorelai.

She accepted the onesie and remarked how it matched the red flannel that Luke wore but he had no response. As she began to redress her movements were careful as not to jostle him around too much. She was still upset about being peed on, which Sookie could have warned her about and she would definitely bring it up, but as she was pressing the snaps on his onesie, she noticed the corner of his mouth starting to curl up into a smile.

"Oh don't even try to smile at me now," Lorelai said, her tone light and cooing as she always had around him. She couldn't help but smile herself. "I don't know if I forgive you just yet but you are very cute."

She looked up as Luke came to stand right behind her. "And Uncle Luke thinks you're very cute too. He even wanted to be twins with you with the matching red shirts. Although that's not going to be the case much longer." She looked over her shoulder at Luke. "Give me your shirt."

"What? Why? No."

"Because mine is dirty," Lorelai complained. "And it's not like you'll be naked, you always wear a t-shirt underneath the flannel. Come on Luke, please?"

"Fine."

Luke unbuttoned his flannel shirt and slipped it from his arms before he held it out in Lorelai's direction. She laid it down on part of the changing table before picking up Davey and handing him off to Luke. Even though he swore that he knew how to properly hold a baby, she made sure that his arms were positioned to support Davey's head. Once she was absolutely sure that he knew how to hold a baby, she pulled her shirt over her head and went to pick up the flannel.

As she slipped her arms into the sleeves of Luke's flannel shirt, she watched as he took more of an interest in Davey, quietly talking to him and watching him as he started to move in his arms. She grinned at the sight of the two of them when she noticed Luke smiling down at the baby he held. With the shirt buttoned up over her pregnant form, she closed the distance between her and Luke.

"You look quite comfortable like that."

Luke looked up away from Davey and at Lorelai. "Yeah, well he's not so bad."

She laughed at that. "I can only hope you can say the same about our child." She made a gesture towards Davey. "Want me to take him back? Or do you have him?"

"I've got him," Luke replied.

She seemed surprised but obliged with what he wanted. "Okay."

* * *

Later that night, Lorelai paced around the living room gently rocking Davey in her arms as she tried to get him to stop crying. After the diaper changing fiasco, she and Luke had managed to eat a little bit of dinner before Davey made his presence known by requesting through his cries that he also be fed. When Davey nuzzled her chest, she had to remind him that she wasn't his mother and could offer no nutrients to him but she could offer him a bottle though it might no be as good as the real thing. She walked Luke through warming up a bottle and then fed Davey herself.

He was happy and content for a few minutes after eating entertaining the adults with the sounds that he learned he could make recently and moving his arms back and forth when they waved toys in front of his face. And then he started to cry.

They had tried everything to get him to stop crying. Considering he just ate, Lorelai knew that he wasn't hungry so she tried burping him again which resulted in spit-up on the back of Luke's shirt that she wore. They tried playing with him, waving toys in front of his face but that did nothing except make him cry more. When they gave up on the toys, Lorelai picked him up and tried to rock him in her arms but her efforts were just met with more cries. Luke offered to take over then which she willingly accepted hoping that Luke might be able to do something that she couldn't.

When Luke's attempt to get Davey to be quiet failed and Lorelai had calmed down a little, she took back over. Cradling Davey close to her chest as she packed back and forth across the living room floor, she started to sing any song that popped in her head, remembering how Rory used to love to be sang to when she was smaller.

"Just another manic Monday," Lorelai sang, as she moved Davey from her chest to laying against her so his head rested on her shoulder.

"Should we call Sookie?" Luke asked.

Lorelai shook her head. "I don't want to ruin their night," she replied as she rubbed soothing circles on Davey's back which seemed to quiet him down a little. "We can handle a crying baby."

She continued to rub his back since that lessened his crying to just a little sniffling. She groaned when she realized that she couldn't keep this up much longer since her unborn son started to move more inside her. She continued to sing to him and rub his back as she made her way towards Luke.

"Take him from me," Lorelai instructed.

"But you just got him quiet, if you keep that up he might go to sleep," Luke said "He might start crying again if you hand him over."

"Yes, but your child is using my bladder as a toy and unless you want me to have an accident, you need to take him," Lorelai replied. "Just do what I'm doing, it seems to work right now."

Luke nodded his head and tried to copy her movements when she handed Davey over and hurried off to the bathroom. Unfortunately he wasn't as successful as Lorelai and the moment she left him alone, Davey started to cry again. He bounced and rocked Davey, talking to him but not singing as Lorelai did. None of it seemed to work though and he just waited for Lorelai to come back.

In the bathroom, Lorelai buttoned her pants back up and moved to wash her hands in the sink. Through the closed door she could still hear Davey crying and she knew that she should hurry up and go back to help Luke but she needed a minute. It had been awhile since she had to take care of a baby this small and tonight was proving just that. She rubbed her hand over her swollen belly and reminded herself that she and Luke would be in the same position in the next few months. For a moment she closed her eyes, knowing that she and Luke could handle parenting even if tonight was testing that with them not being able to figure out why Davey was upset.

When she opened her eyes, she noticed that it was quiet. More specifically that she could no longer hear any crying. She opened the door to the bathroom and shuffled back to the living room only to find it empty. She didn't want to possibly disturb Davey by calling out Luke's name so she moved from room-to-room silently as she searched for her husband and their friend's baby. She finally found Luke in Sookie and Jackson's bedroom knelt down on the ground beside the bed but there was no Davey in sight.

"Luke?" Lorelai called softly. "Don't tell me you ditched Davey. I don't know how to explain to Sookie that we no longer have her baby."

Luke pushed up from the ground then turned to Lorelai. "I still have the baby. He's just under the bed."

"What?" Lorelai nearly shrieked. She stepped as quickly as she could towards the bed. She first looked at the bed then cut her eyes sharply to Luke. "What do you mean he's under the bed?"

"Come here and look," Luke replied urgently as he knelt down once again and peeked underneath the bed.

She looked down at her protruding belly, "Hon, I don't think I can do that. Not like this."

"Here," Luke offered his hand.

Lorelai placed her hand in his and he helped her ease down onto her knees. She mimicked his position and peeked underneath the bed, quickly jolting up when she saw that Davey indeed was underneath the bed. "What did you do?"

Luke slumped back. "I tried everything that you were doing. I bounced him, rocked him, rubbed his back, hell I even started to sing to him."

She wanted to comment on that last statement but this wasn't the time. "And through all of that he ended up under the bed how?"

"I tried everything, everything that you did, but none of it worked and he wouldn't stop crying," Lorelai replied. "So I invented a game."

"A game where you roll babies underneath the bed?" Lorelai asked.

"No, well yeah, but that wasn't the point of the game," Luke quickly replied. flustered by the situation. "I was just trying to calm him down so I came in here to look for the blanket that Sookie said he loved and when I found it, I thought of a game. I called it baby pancake."

"You're losing me here hon."

"He was loving it. I rolled him up in the blanket, started to pull it back and forth and back and forth. He stopped crying and started to laugh," Luke recalled. "He smiled, he loved it. And then I pulled back a little too hard."

"And you rolled him underneath the bed," Lorelai finished his sentence. She peeked underneath the bed again and watched as Davey's eyelids started to drift shut. "Well it doesn't look like he hates you, he's going to sleep," she whispered.

Luke copied her movements. "Yeah, look at that. He is going to sleep."

When Davey's eyes fell shut and she noticed that his chest was steadily rising and falling like he was asleep, she smiled. "He looks so peaceful. I almost don't want to disturb him."

"We need to get him out from underneath the bed," Luke reminded her.

"I know," Lorelai replied. She pushed up from peeking underneath the bed and leaned back. "You know what I just thought of?"

"What?" Luke asked though his mind was riddled with ways to get a baby out from underneath a bed.

"Baby crepe would be a better name for this game," Lorelai pointed out and Luke looked at her like she was crazy. "Just listen, baby pancake works for you because you make the best pancakes but for Sookie, baby crepe makes much more sense."

"Not the point Lorelai! We have a baby underneath the bed, a baby that we were responsible for."

"I'm not the one that rolled him underneath the bed."

"Here," Luke offered his hand to her again when he stood up. "I need your help to get him out from underneath the bed."

With one of her hands in his, she pushed herself up from the ground with one hand as Luke pulled her up by the other hand. She stumbled on her feet for just a second but assured Luke she was fine, just had a little trouble standing up. She turned to him with her hands on her hips. "How are we going to get him out from underneath the bed?"

"I lift this up here," Luke indicated the edge of the mattress that he was talking about and then gestured to Lorelai. "When I lift it up, you bend down and pick up Davey."

"You do realize that with your child taking up room in my body, it's going to be just a little more difficult for me to just bend down, right?" Lorelai questioned.

"I can hold it long enough," Luke replied. He placed his hands underneath the corner of the mattress. "You ready?"

Lorelai nodded her head and waited for Luke to do his part in rescuing Davey from underneath the bed. As soon as the mattress was lifted, she bent down as best as she could and as quickly as she could and swooped Davey up into her arms. He wiggled slightly when she picked him up and let out a small cry but Lorelai shushed him and bounced him carefully in her arms until he was back fast asleep. She nodded her head in the direction of the bedroom door as she headed towards it then walked back into the living room. Once there, she laid Davey down in the bassinet, rubbing her finger over his cheek before she took a step back and faced Luke who stood beside her.

"You're never playing baby pancake with our child."

"I got him to sleep, didn't I?" Luke asked.

"Yes, you did," Lorelai answered. "But you also got him stuck underneath the bed."

"And we got him out from underneath the bed," Luke replied. He looked towards the bassinet. "Look at him though, he's sleeping. He's no longer crying."

She chuckled when she noticed that Davey was smiling his sleep. "He looks happy." She leaned back against Luke when he moved to stand behind her, "We're not telling Sookie about this."

"Agreed."

"And you can play this game that you made up that you said Davey loves with our child, you'll just play it where there are no beds to roll a baby under."

"Probably the best decision," Luke agreed, he wrapped his arms so they rested on the swell of her belly where he could feel their son kick.

"Hey Luke?" Lorelai called while they watched Davey sleep.

"Yes Lorelai?"

She titled her head to the side so she could look into his eyes. Curiosity danced in her eyes and smile. "What song did you sing to him?"

* * *

Much later that night, after they returned home from their grand night of babysitting, Luke was already laid back in bed when Lorelai climbed in next to him. She scooted over close to him, laying her head down on his chest and cuddling up to him as she finally relaxed from from their long night. She moved her head and nuzzled it into the space where his neck met his shoulder.

Davey stayed asleep for a little while after Luke's impromptu rolling him under the bed which luckily resulted in getting him to sleep but he woke up again before his parents could arrive home. Lorelai volunteered Luke for diaper duty this time around under the pretense that he needed some diaper changing experience under his belt before their baby was born. That was a fiasco in itself since Lorelai tried to help him while trying to avoid a similar fate as before. That incident was the first thing Lorelai spoke about when Sookie and Jackson returned home to which Sookie sheepishly admitted that she did leave that part out of all the details she told them about watching Davey.

"Oh my god," Lorelai moaned when Luke rested a hand on her baby bump and wrapped his other arm around her. "I forgot how much work tiny babies can be. It's been too long since I had to do that."

"I know what you mean," Luke sympathized. "He's small but he makes a lot of noise."

Her laugh vibrated against his chest. "And some big messes, that last diaper..."

"That I was responsible for changing."

Lorelai lifted her head to look him in the eyes. "That I helped you change." She laid her head back down on him and closed her eyes. "You needed to learn, to practice," she whispered through a yawn and it wasn't long before her breathing steadied and she was asleep.

"I know I do," he admitted quietly.

Though he had thoroughly read every baby book that he bought as well as pretty much every pamphlet they had stocked in the doctor's office since there was always a wait but if tonight had taught him anything, and it had, it was that no amount of reading helped all that much in the application of skills that were required to take care of a baby. He had survived tonight without any major setbacks, unless rolling a baby underneath a bed counted, but there was a lot that went into taking care of a baby that, at this point, he wasn't nearly as prepared as he thought he should be. He had a long way to go.

* * *

 **And yes I took the "Michel rolling the baby under the bed incident" and worked it into this story.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer in first chapter. Thanks for all the support! So in here we get an anniversary and a freak-out. Enjoy.**

* * *

Lorelai groaned as she sat up in bed; the damn church bells bellowed loudly as they did every hour on the hour and ripped her from her sleep. Bleary-eyed, she glanced over at the alarm clock on her nightstand and fell back onto the mattress when she noticed the red numbers only read five AM. Beside her Luke was fast asleep and she envied his ability to sleep through anything. It took her a minute, due to her expanding baby bump, but she rolled onto her side and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek before she rolled back to her other side and climbed out of bed, knowing that at this point she was not going to be able to get back to sleep. Not with the way Baby No Name was moving around.

The reinstatement of the church bells was in honor of Stan, a town resident who recently passed and loved the bells when they used to ring out. When the bells first started to ring out over the town, Lorelai loved them and of course Luke hated them. She thought they were happy and melodic and a great addition to her walks through the town while Luke thought the complete opposite. They were before her time in Stars Hollow and loved hearing a part of the past. But now, after being woken up very early in the morning for the past two mornings, she was on the same team as Luke concerning the bells. They were a nuisance.

Downstairs in the kitchen, Lorelai put on a pot of coffee to brew before making her way over to the refrigerator. She ran her finger over the calendar that was attached to the fridge by a magnet shaped like a banana and smiled at the date her finger landed on. The date of her and Luke's wedding anniversary that just so happened to be today. With everything else going on in their lives at the moment they decided to celebrate with a low-key, day to themselves, at home. And though she was no whiz in the kitchen, she could make him a little breakfast. She could make a fruit salad, all it involved was chopping of fruits. At least that's all she had planned on.

But that could wait a few minutes while she enjoyed her daily cup of coffee that wasn't decaf in an attempt to energize herself from the very early wake-up call courtesy of the church bells. When her coffee was finished, she fixed herself a cup before leaving the kitchen and heading into the living room where she curled up on the couch with a decorating magazine. She began to flip through it, making notes of the sconces she wanted to get Sookie's opinion on.

Babysitting Davey for a night opened her eyes to not only the physical differences in raising a little girl versus raising a little boy but also made her realize just how long it had been since she cared for a baby and how much work they required. She definitely wasn't as young as she used to be. Though this time around, she did have a full-time partner in Luke who would be there every step of the way in raising their child. Still it had been a while and she didn't think they were nearly as prepared as they once previously thought.

That night had been a couple of weeks ago and since then they had both anchored down in preparing for their new arrival as she was near the end of her second trimester and approaching the beginning of her third. Lists were made and a couple pieces of necessary furniture was bought which she saw as an improvement on a few weeks ago though they still had plenty to go.

Finished with her coffee, Lorelai tossed her magazine aside and shuffled back into the kitchen. Knowing that Luke would be up soon since he was an early riser, she began to sort through the various fruits that she had bought and some that were given to her by Jackson. She selected a few of Luke's favorites and ones that she thought might taste good all mixed together and moved them to the counter.

With a knife in her hand, she began to chop up the various fruits, starting with the apple which she couldn't help but munch on since she hadn't yet had any breakfast. She was halfway through with her chopping and assembling of the fruit salad when she heard movement other than her in the kitchen. She looked up to find Luke making his way towards her.

"Hey sleepyhead," she greeted, smiling at his disheveled and in pajamas look. He wore one of her favorite outfits of his, olive green t-shirt and gray sweatpants. "I was going to bring you breakfast in bed."

"Breakfast?" Luke asked. He came to a stop beside Lorelai and wrapped his arm around her waist. "You were going to make me breakfast?"

She gestured down to the counter in front of her. "Fruit salad. I know from experience that I can't cook but I can chop and assemble. I thought since it's our anniversary, I would make you breakfast since you're always making me breakfast even if someone of it is at the diner where you make everyone breakfast."

"Speaking of which," Luke said as he guided his hand over hers. Setting the knife down on the counter, her intertwined their fingers and gently pulled her against him. As against him as she would be with the baby bump. "Happy Anniversary."

He dipped his head down to her and brushed his lips against hers, barely grazing them which he knew always made her want more. Seconds later, he was giving her what she wanted when she pressed harder insisting on more, willing him to kiss her deeper. He gratefully obliged her request, his hand moved from her waist and weaved through her messy, bed-head curls, tilting her head up towards him as he kissed her passionately.

Lorelai pulled away first, a little breathless but with a dreamy smile on her face. "Happy Anniversary to you too."

He chuckled and kissed her passionately again.

"You know," she began when she pulled back briefly. "I was thinking about adding a little oatmeal with your fruit salad, it can't be that hard to make, right? That would be an anniversary breakfast."

"That might end with our house burning down in flames," Luke replied though with the look in his eyes, she knew he was teasing. "I don't want oatmeal."

She wound her arms around his neck and allowed him to press her back against the counter. His hands roamed underneath her pajama top. "Enlighten me then, what do you want?"

He answered her with another kiss. This one, unlike the previous, stopped as soon as it began when the church bells tolled out again and startled them both. She cursed the bells and wondered aloud just why they seemed to ring out so loud in their house which Luke didn't have an answer for but swore that he would hurt Taylor for allowing this to continue on even if it wasn't all on him. But since Taylor wanted to be in charge of the whole town, this could very well be on him.

"You're not going to kill Taylor today," Lorelai told her husband. "Tomorrow, you're free to do whatever you want but today we're spending the day together."

"I might not want to tomorrow," Luke replied.

"Well you'll avoid jail time then." She leaned back in to start what was barely started before when her stomach growled loudly putting another halt to any action. "This isn't working."

"Seems that way," Luke chuckled. "You can go rest if you want, I can take over here. I'll make you whatever you want."

"I don't need to rest," Lorelai insisted. "I'm fine. I said that I was going to put a fruit salad together for you and that's what I'm going to do. I can't go with my original plan of bringing it to you in bed since you just had to get up but I'm still making it for you. As for me, I'm craving blueberry pancakes."

Luke pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm on it."

He rooted through the cabinets in the kitchen grabbing the necessary bowls and measuring cups first then gathering the necessary ingredients even moving past the counter and swiping the package of blueberries that Lorelai had set out. He poured some into a measuring cup before he slid the package across the kitchen counter to her when she insisted that she needed them to add them to his breakfast.

Luke glanced up from the pancake batter he whipped up and over at Lorelai who was still chopping fruit, though at the moment she was eating more than she was putting in the bowl. "If you keep eating all the fruit, there's not going to be anymore for the fruit salad you want to make."

"Hey, blame your son," Lorelai replied. "He's the whole reason, I'm craving fruit." She smiled and ran a hand over her swollen belly. "It makes him wiggle all around in there. He's dancing."

"I doubt he's dancing."

"Oh lighten up grumpy." She moved beside him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "He probably got his dancing skills from you."

She laughed at the fact that a comment like that still made him blush as she moved back to her end of the counter and resumed her previous task of fixing a little something for him while he worked at the opposite end of the counter doing the same for her.

* * *

Lorelai read carefully over the list that Luke held out for her; her eyes scanned over the list of names that he had chosen for their son. Some names were crossed out, obviously no longer an option, others were left unmarked, and a few had special tick marks next to them that he explained were for the names that he considered over the others.

Beside her on the couch, Luke held her lists of names she had chosen for their son. Her list mimicked hers in the ways of names being crossed out and the tick marks next to certain names.

After breakfast, Lorelai suggested that since they were taking the day off from their jobs, though she did field a call from Tom during breakfast about the inn, that they could try and choose a name today since that was at the top of their baby to-do list and since their child couldn't go without a name. And unlike last time, she thought it would be good to have a name prepared ahead of time.

Lorelai beamed as she read over a name on Luke's list that would match up perfectly with a name on her list. "I think I have the name of our baby."

"Really?" Luke asked, he angled his head towards her. "What are you thinking?"

She grabbed the pen that rested on the end table and quickly scribbled down the name on the bottom of the list she held in her hand; a combination of the name from his list first followed by the name from her list and then their last name added on, all in her loopy handwriting.

"What do you think?"

Luke glanced down at the name she was scribbled down and then gave her a smile. "I think it's great."

"Great enough to be what we name our son?" Lorelai asked.

He gave a nod of his head and tapped his finger on the paper where she had wrote down the name. "That's what we should name our son."

She leaned in and kissed his lips softly. "He will no longer be Baby No Name, little Danes has a name." They shared another kiss and then she nuzzled against him and let out a sigh. "At least we can now cross 'give Little No Name a name', off our list. One thing done."

"And several more to go," Luke replied. It seemed like the more he thought about it, the more he realized just how much there was to do before their son's arrival and how unprepared they still were. "There's still a lot we have to do and not so much time."

She nodded her head, using that move to cuddle closer to him. "I know."

"I'm serious Lorelai," Luke stressed.

"I'm serious too Luke," Lorelai replied. She pulled away from him to look him in the eye. "Believe me I know that we still have plenty to do before the baby arrives. We've talked about it, we made lists, we're working on it."

"I know about the lists, they're long. And there's a lot to do before the baby arrives, we haven't accomplished that much."

"I know that we haven't done much," Lorelai tried to soothe him. "But we're working on it. We finished the nursery, we just decided on a name, we have a few baby essentials that we bought and I know it's not much but it's not like I'm going to give birth tomorrow or in the next few weeks. We do still have time."

"That's still not that much time," Luke argued. "We're both busy with work most of the time. I know you're working a lot now trying to get the inn ready to open but I hope that will slow down as you get closer to your due date because you're already stressing out and all that stress is not good for the baby."

"Luke," she called his name but as he got up from the couch and started to pace in front of her she knew that he was in full-on rant mode and she could only listen because he wasn't going to listen to her.

"And this isn't just about the material things we need, though we do still need certain things," Luke began his rant. "Like a car seat, we don't have one of those and we'll need one of those to bring the baby home from the hospital. And speaking of that, we'll probably need a new car. My truck isn't safe for a child in a car seat. Your jeep isn't that reliable and we'll need a reliable car. Or van or something."

"We've already said that we would look at cars," Lorelai reminded him even though she still wasn't sure if he was going to hear her since he continued his rant. "We haven't yet but we can go sometime this week. I'll move things with the inn around."

"But it's not just about needing a new car or van," Luke replied, indicating that he did hear her but was still in rant mode. "We also need to think about what we're going to do once the baby is born."

"I think we should definitely keep him," she quipped which earned her a pointed glare from Luke because this was not the time.

"Watching Davey for one night was a lot of work, I didn't realize babies were that much work. I knew there was a lot involved but that was eye-opening," Luke continued his rant. "Which made me think about how we're going to handle everything once the baby is born. We'll both have full-time jobs and we can't really expect to carry him to work with us everyday. Of course we'll talk time off around the time he's born but we'll have to go back to work eventually and we might need help to take care of him while we're at work some days. I can't just have a tiny baby in the diner all the time."

"I hadn't really thought about that," Lorelai confessed once Luke quieted down.

That made him stop his pacing. "What? You hadn't thought about it?" he asked.

She gave a sigh and then a shake of her head. "No, I mean I have thought about it, about our work schedules especially since the inn should be open in a few months if all goes according to schedule but my thinking was more along the lines of how close my due date and the opening of the inn are together. I don't want for it to open when I can't be there but that's how the renovating schedule plays out. I guess the date could be moved, the opening not my due date because that's the baby's choice when it wants to be born. But I guess I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"Well I have," Luke said, taking a seat next to her on the couch. "I've thought about it a lot."

"I noticed," Lorelai replied.

"I have help at the diner but I can't just leave it in their hands all the time and your business will be new and just getting off the ground," Luke began before he was interrupted.

"If it doesn't fail."

"It's not going to fail," Luke assured her which earned him a smile from her. "I just think that we'll need some help, at least a few weeks after he is born. When you're recovered and want to go to the inn."

"Because I'm doing a lot of the work here," Lorelai said, pointing down to her obviously pregnant belly. Which also rang true of the work she put in on the Dragonfly as well, at least most of the time. "Trying to start a family and a new business aren't exactly compatible."

"No, it's not," Luke couldn't help but agree. "I think we're doing okay though."

"Says the man who just had a freak-out," Lorelai pointed out.

"There's so much that we still have to do and not a lot of it can be accomplished in one day," Luke replied, nearly starting to freak out again.

"I know that babe. I know we still have a lot to do but since we both have the day off why don't we try and get something done today?" Lorelai offered. "We can at least go for the material things today, maybe a car seat and other baby essentials. The other things we can talk about."

"It was your suggestion to spend today at home."

She gave a nod of her head. "I know but that was mainly so we're spending the day together. This way we can still spend the day together but spend it doing things for our baby." She shut her eyes when the church bells rang out again. "Plus I need to get away from those damn bells because if I hear them one more time, I'm going to break them myself."

Luke chuckled. He stood up from the couch and offered his hand to help her up. "Maybe we'll save that for later."

With their silent agreement to go shopping, she followed him upstairs to get ready. "You know," she said as they reached the top of the staircase. "About that needing help when the baby is born, I have a suggestion."

"Let me hear it," Luke replied.

"You know, Kirk did once…"

She wasn't even able to finish before his response came through loud and clear. And firm. "No."

"Offer his services as a manny," she continued on as she tried to hold back her laughter.

"Oh well if that's the case," Luke said as he turned around to face her. "Hell no."

Lorelai continued on as they entered the bedroom where she followed him over to their closet. She loved to tease him. "He's practically a child himself, so really who better to take care of a baby?"

"Another baby would be better," Luke answered her question though she wasn't looking for an answer.

"Aw honey, let me at least pop this one out first before you start planning for another," Lorelai quipped. As she moved past him with her clothes now in one hand, she ran her free hand along his back, "But seriously, let this one finish baking first before you jump on the second kid bandwagon."

* * *

Much later that night, Luke walked into their bedroom to find Lorelai sprawled out on the bed. She may have taken off the coat seeing as it was crumbled on the floor but she hadn't bothered to change out of the pants and sweater she had put on earlier before their shopping escapade. In fact, she even still had her shoes on. She smiled lazily at him and patted the spot on the bed next to her.

"What an anniversary," Lorelai commented as Luke crawled into bed next to her. She removed his cap and ran her hand through his hair when he angled his body on the bed so his head rested on her pregnant belly. "Making breakfast together, a minor freakout courtesy of you, shopping, breaking the bells," she teased him about their small moment of criminal activity.

He pressed a kiss to her belly. "We had the Reverend's blessing for the last part," he reminded her. "Don't forget that."

She sighed contentedly, enjoying the feeling of his hands as they roamed underneath her sweater and over her warm skin. "I can't believe you were the one who broke the bells the first time around."

"Someone needed to do it," Luke replied, continuing to run his hands over her swollen belly and marveling at the small movements he could feel coming from their child. "And I had the right tools."

"Dirty!"

"That was too easy." He knew what was coming next but before she could say it, he moved up her body and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Don't say it."

Lorelai wound her arms around his neck and held him close to her. "Demanding, I like it."

"Not that I didn't like committing a felony with you but I did have other plans for tonight. I had an anniversary dinner planned," Luke told her.

Her fingers trailed over the side of his face, feeling the stubble from a couple days growth. "I thought going to Sniffy's was perfect."

"I was going to make chocolate covered strawberries," Luke replied, punctuating it with a kiss. "And that cheesecake that you love."

She smiled against his lips as he kissed her again. "I'm a lucky girl."

"I'm an even luckier man."

She ran her fingers through his hair once more and played with the curls at the nape of his neck. "You're awfully sappy on anniversaries."

"I heard that you're supposed to be." He met her in the middle as she lifted her head from the pillow and brushed her lips over his. "I love you."

"I love you too." She smiled as she felt a kick. "Baby loves you too."

He grinned then pressed a soft kiss to her lips before trailing kisses down her neck, stopping when he came in contact with the fabric of her sweater. His hands roamed back under the material of her sweater and pushed it up, pressing kisses to every inch of exposed skin. After a few minutes of paying special attention to her, he helped her pull the sweater the rest of the way off and captured her lips in a fierce kiss.

He pulled back, checking in to see if she was okay. "You sure you're not too tired?"

She shook her head. "Oh believe I'm not tired now." She kissed him again. "And I'm pretty sure anniversary sex is a rule. It has to be done. Plus no bells to interrupt us this time."

"Such a sweet talker."

"I know how to put the moves on people." She used her grip on his shirt to pull him closer than before. "Now let's get to the anniversary sex."

He chuckled before closing the very small space between them and kissing her passionately.

* * *

 **Small freak-out from Luke but things to think about for the couple. And going to keep you in suspense over the name that I have definitely chosen because it's more fun that way. For me at least. More freak-outs to come later.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Sorry, I know this update took forever but I'm back to updating now and hope to update regularly from now on. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Because you wanted the minivan."

Lorelai all but scoffed when Luke, once again, went into a similar spiel the car salesman gave earlier today when they decided to dive right into new vehicle shopping. It had only been a few days since Luke's freakout and they had made up their minds to try and get the bigger things out of the way as soon as possible so it wasn't left open ended by the time their baby arrived. However, her pregnancy hormones were working overtime today and their vehicle shopping turned into argument after argument over what would be right for their growing family until it reached the point where they stopped speaking to one another and headed home where they parted ways, both going to their respective businesses until they had to meet again to head to dinner.

On the way to Friday Night dinner, they mutually agreed to put the conversation turned argument behind them for the time being in order to stave off argument that she did not want to have in front of her parents. But since Rory wasn't there to enthrall everyone with tales of Yale, the conversation soon turned to the unborn child and whether or not parents of said unborn child were prepared. The seemingly innocent minivan question was brought up by her mother who expressed her own concerns over the safety of her soon-to-be-born grandchild and the vehicle he would ride around in.

Frustrated, Lorelai stabbed at a carrot on her plate and waved the speared carrot in the direction of her husband as she spoke. "I know that we need a roomier vehicle, something safer for our baby Luke. But what we don't need is a minivan. They're not stylish. We're not minivan people."

"Who are these minivan people that you keep mentioning?"

Emily cut in before Lorelai could answer the question directed at her. "I have to agree with Lorelai. Something safe is needed, God knows a newborn doesn't need to ride around in either of your vehicles, but a minivan is not the way to go."

Lorelai looked across the table to her husband who occupied Rory's usual seat due to her dinner absence. She popped the stabbed piece of carrot in her mouth and a closed smile crossed her face. That was followed by a lift of her eyebrow as she chewed because she had someone on her side and it didn't matter at the moment that it was her mother. Her tone was accusatory but her eyes playful.

"Now look what you did, you made my mother agree with me."

Emily cut her eyes to her daughter. The expression was one that Lorelai had seen plenty of in her lifetime, one that was rife with the lack of amusement she found in some of her daughter's quips. "I don't see why you think it's so preposterous that I could agree with you once in a while."

"It's not preposterous," Lorelai reiterated. "I'm just trying to get over the initial shock that you actually agreed with me on something. Weird feeling and baby agrees."

"How wonderful," Emily replied dryly.

"But," she drew out determinedly, fixing her eyes back on Luke. "If it makes you feel better, I will use that as a selling point to say that we don't need a minivan. Minivan, no. Something equal parts roomier and safe and a tad bit stylish, yes."

Luke blew out a heavy breath through his nose. Earlier, she was right. They were not going to argue in front of her parents. Well Emily since Richard wasn't currently at the table. "You don't buy a vehicle because it's stylish."

"Nuh-uh, you don't buy a vehicle because it's stylish," Lorelai corrected. A finger jab in his direction emphasized her words.

"Ah, what did I miss?"

Lorelai stopped the forkful of chicken that was traveling to her mouth when her father re-entered the room after excusing himself to take what he deemed an 'important business call that couldn't wait until after dinner,' though Emily highly suggested the call not be taken while they are eating. Her father may have not noticed the glare from his wife that had the threat of boring a hole into his back, but Lorelai did. To her it seemed that whatever was going on between her parents and had been going on for a few months now hadn't improved at all. In fact, it may have even worsened since the last time she tried to get her mother to open up to her.

Emily cleared her throat, garnering her husband's attention as he made his way around the dining room table and found his seat. "I was just going to offer that we buy Lorelai and Luke a new car."

Richard lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "You were?" His gaze drifted from Emily to Luke and then settled on Lorelai. "You and Luke are looking to buy a new vehicle?"

"Well yeah," Lorelai answered, giving a slight nod of her head as she did so. "When the baby comes we'll need something with a little more room."

"And something a little safer," Luke tacked on to Lorelai's response.

Emily had to throw her response in as well. "God knows neither of their vehicles are safe for a baby."

"Which is why we were looking for something knew." Lorelai stated the obvious then directed her next comment at her mother. "But you don't have to offer to buy us a new car. Luke and I went to look today and we have an idea of what we don't want," she said definitely. "We can do this for ourselves."

Luke spoke up at that moment, making it clear that he thought Lorelai was right but they did also appreciate the offer.

"Are you in a place where you can buy a new vehicle?" Richard asked, drawing the attention of everyone at the table. "Financially, I mean."

"Well..." Lorelai started and then drifted off as she tried to find a way to word this in the best way possible.

Images of the Inn's budget and her and Luke's personal finances flew through her mind and threatened to bring back the headache from the day before when she surrounded herself with spreadsheets and various other forms of paperwork for the Dragonfly as she tried to work around the budget they had originally set and then changed not long into the remodeling process. Yet another aspect of the Inn that fell solely to her since Sookie complained that she was never good with numbers unless it involved baking. Personally they weren't on the verge of falling into deep financial trouble that they wouldn't be able to crawl out of but if the latest figures were correct, it would mean pouring more money into the remodeling process in order for the Inn to actually open and not sit unfinished for years. With that, their own personal budget became a headscratcher as to how a new vehicle would fit in but Luke assured her that they would be fine and they could afford a new car, it would just require some tweaking of their budget.

"I know firsthand that starting a new business isn't cheap, especially trying to open up a new inn. Knowing you, I expect you want the best and that can require a lot of work and money," Richard started. "I assume the diner is doing well but a new business is a financial risk. Buying a new car can be expensive, especially if you want something top of the line. You don't want to open yourself up to financial trouble."

"Your father's right," Emily added on and Lorelai suspected that with their attitudes it might be the first thing they agreed upon in a while. "Right now, you're already doing so much and allowing us to do this will take some of the pressure off of you. You can think of it was a present for our grandson, if that helps."

"A new car before he's even out of the womb," Lorelai commented, her hand straying down to her baby bump. "How very Gilmore."

"You refused my help before but this is something else that your father and I would like to do for you and Luke and for my grandson," Emily commented. "Letting us help will take some of the stress off of you and you can focus on the pregnancy, more than trying to find a new car. I can make sure it's something that you're comfortable with."

Lorelai wasn't able to get a word in before her father spoke up again. "We would like to offer our help." His next comment was meant for Emily. "Though maybe we should let Luke and Lorelai look for something they want, we could just foot the bill. Help out that way."

"Are you suggesting that I'm not capable of finding a vehicle that will be suitable for them and their child?" Emily asked.

"I'm sure that's not what Dad meant," Lorelai jumped in to assure her mother when she took on an insulted tone.

"I just meant that Luke and Lorelai might want to look for a new vehicle on their own to make sure it's what they want not that you weren't capable," Richard answered. "I also meant that I won't have the time to take off from work and go look for a new vehicle."

"Again, not necessary to buy us one, I think we can swing it," Lorelai spoke up but it fell upon deaf ears.

"No one said you had to go, I'm more than capable of doing this myself," Emily replied, her voice as sharp as the look she was currently giving him. "I offered and I'm going to do this for them. We're going to have another grandchild soon, I want to help out."

"I agree that we should help out," Richard started only to be cut off by his wife.

"Then it's settled, we're buying a new car for Lorelai and Luke," Emily said definitely. She tore her eyes away from her husband who sat at the opposite end of the table and focused back on her plate of food in front of her.

Confused as to what just happened, Lorelai looked across the table to Luke. "Shouldn't we get a say in this?"

"Consider it a gift," Emily answered her daughter. "You refused my first gift and now I'm offering something else. This will be money that you did not have to spend. As your mother, I want to do this for you. For my grandchild."

The silence that followed combined with the sequence that had just played out between her mother and father and had been playing out since they arrived at diner, Lorelai chose not to argue against her mother. She could drop the issue for now and pick it up again later, after she talked with Luke about the proposed idea. The not at all bad and actually helpful idea. Conversation fell short soon after, every new topic introduced was dropped within just a few minutes. Soon the only clear sounds were that of the maid shuffling in with the dessert and the clang of utensils against the dishes.

* * *

The next afternoon, the diner bells sounded her arrival as Lorelai strolled into the diner. She had only made it a few steps in before she stopped and scrunched up her eyebrows at the scene before her. Or really lack of scene before her. Usually around this time, the diner was bustling with the last of the lunch crowd soon to be followed by a few stragglers who enjoyed a later lunch who would be joined by just a couple of lingers from the lunch rush who liked to take the time to enjoy another cup of coffee or the latest gossip. It was her favorite time to come by because it allowed a perfect balance between catching up on gossip and occupying a good chunk of Luke's time while she ate. Today, however, there were only a very few number of people in the diner and two of them worked there.

"Wow, it's dead in here," Lorelai commented as she moved her feet again and made her way to the counter where Luke stood. She eyed the stool warily and tried to decide if sitting at the counter was a good idea or not with her pregnant belly. "It's not usually this dead, especially on a Saturday."

Luke responded with a shrug of his shoulders. "I have customers."

Lorelai gave the diner a once-over and her eyes settled on a man in the corner before she turned back to Luke. "You have a Kirk."

"The diner was busier earlier," Luke explained. "Regular customers ordering their regular meals and some taking up tables when other customers could use them."

"Someone's grumpy today."

Luke sighed, leaning forward on the counter. "I'm not grumpy."

She gave a nod of her head, bracing her hands on the edge of the counter as she closed the space between them. "Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, you're grumpy," she said before quickly pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "That's okay, I'm a little grumpy too."

"Your meeting at the inn didn't go well?" Luke asked, reaching behind himself for the decaf pot of coffee after producing a mug stored underneath the counter.

With a quick shake of her head, Lorelai replied, "Well you could say that. I thought I was supposed to meet with Sookie and Michel today to do a walk-through and discuss what's done and what still needs to be done but Sookie never showed and didn't answer when I called. Michel showed but didn't stay long, insisting that he had somewhere else to be."

Luke followed Lorelai with her cup of coffee in his hands as she made the decision that she wasn't going to sit at the counter but at one of the empty tables by the window. "You need to talk to them. You can't do everything on your own, that's stressful enough for someone who isn't pregnant. You've been doing a lot on your own recently, they're partners in this business too."

"I know, I know," Lorelai sighed. She accepted the coffee when he offered and took a long sip. "They have their own lives too and Sookie isn't good with the financial planning and numbers part of the business but I am so that falls to me. Which I can handle."

"There's other areas they could help out with," Luke butted in. Since the only other people in the diner were Kirk and Cesar who were now sitting together, he joined Lorelai at her table. "Like showing up for a scheduled meeting to discuss the inn that they want a part in opening."

"I know," Lorelai repeated with as just an exasperated sigh as before. "Can we not talk my perpetually doomed business right now? Can we focus on something else?"

He reached across the table and laid his hand across hers and gave it a tender squeeze. "Your business isn't doomed. The Dragonfly is going to do great. Everyone will want to stay there, it will be written about in magazines."

"We're married and I'm pregnant with your child, you have to say nice things to me," she replied. A soft smile crossed her face. "But thank you."

He gave her a just as soft and sweet smile back. "Anytime."

"Now can we talk about the fact that I'm starving and you haven't yet asked me what I would like to eat?" Lorelai asked and then went on to answer her own question. "Because if that question was asked the answer would be a BLT with extra B and a side of fries."

He chuckled. "Coming right up."

As Luke moved to stand up from the chair and go to the kitchen to prepare Lorelai's order, Cesar intercepted asking to hear the lunch order and then offering to cook so Luke could stay out front with Lorelai while she waited. Encouraged by Lorelai to take Cesar up on his offer since she mentioned there was something else she wanted to talk to him about, he remained at the table while Cesar headed into the kitchen and while Kirk left money on his table for his meal and then left the diner.

"About my parent's offer last night," Lorelai started. "Or more so my mother's offer, I've thought about it and we haven't really talked about it since it was offered, but I don't think it's such a bad idea. The inn is going to cost more than originally planned and we still have baby stuff to buy and if we didn't have the expense of getting a new car, I think it would be less stressful on us. And you are all about reducing my stress."

"You would be okay with your mother personally picking out a new car for us?" Luke asked.

"Well, I mean, we could give suggestions as to what we want if we knew what we wanted, maybe show some pictures so we don't end up with something that screams 'Emily Gilmore,'" Lorelai tried to explain. "Plus whatever is happening between my parents, I think my mom needs this, needs to help out or focus on anything than other than what she's not talking to me about even though I have asked."

"I'm sure everything is fine between your parents, maybe they hit a rough patch, but they could work it out," Luke attempted to reassure his wife who he knew was worried about her parents. "Could be her way of wanting you to accept the presents she is offering since the nursery makeover was refused."

She laughed at that because that's exactly what was on her mind. "You know that thought did cross my mind, that this is all a mind game but it's carried on for too long. She wouldn't go to this length. But if it was, then it worked."

"It would help us out," Luke admitted. "We could focus more on finding someone to help out once the baby is born and we both have to go back to work."

"That's one thing we're not mentioning to my parents. Especially to my mother. I can only imagine the comments she'll make if she learns we're hiring a nanny."

He gave a sharp nod of his head. "I'm not arguing with you on that."

The couple was startled when the current quiet nature of the diner was broken by the forceful opening of the diner door followed by the usual tinkling of the bells. Their attention was drawn to the figure standing in the doorway and addressing them both by name. An awkward figure of a person who had just left the diner barely ten minutes ago.

"What is it Kirk?" Luke questioned when the man in question continued to stand in the doorway staring at them.

He let out a breath that he had been holding. "There's an emergency town meeting."

"Now?" Lorelai asked to which Kirk nodded in response. A slight pout formed on her face. "But my food..."

"We don't have to go to every meeting this town holds, you know as well as I do that these emergency town meetings are never really emergencies," Luke replied.

"But I can't skip a town meeting, Rory likes to stay up to date on the happenings in this town," Lorelai reasoned. "If she finds out that there was a town meeting and I didn't go to see what it was about, she'll be upset."

"So, we'll send Jess," Luke suggested.

She looked around the diner and saw no signs on her daughter's boyfriend. "And where is Jess?"

Luke gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know. He left earlier, said he needed to go out for something."

"Then I think we have to go." She carefully pushed herself up from the chair and steadied herself on her feet. "Can you..."

Luke seemed to read her mind. "I'll go get your food from Cesar, we'll take it to the meeting. It will really piss Taylor off."

"And what would this town be without the Luke and Taylor dynamic, certainly a little less colorful," Lorelai called after Luke as he moved away from their table and headed back towards the kitchen. She turned to Kirk who still stood in the doorway. "You can go back to the meeting, we're on the way."

"Don't be late," Kirk warned, confusing Lorelai as he swiveled on his heel and then bolted out the door.

She watched as he hurried down the sidewalk, somewhere between a walk and a run, and then ducked into the dance studio. She was confused but put it down to Kirk's natural ways. A few seconds later she felt a hand on her shoulder and a take-out box of food was being placed in her hands. She smiled and pressed a kiss to Luke's cheek.

"Let's go."

Luke pressed a hand to her back as he led her out the diner door and down the sidewalk, heading to the dance studio. All the while, Lorelai had opened her container of food and started to munch on a loose piece of bacon that had fallen off her sandwich and rested amongst the pile of french fries. Preoccupied while trying to hold her lunch steady without spilling anything and navigating the few steps up to the dance studio/town meeting hall, Lorelai didn't immediately notice that the studio was darkened inside. She only noticed when Luke started to grumble about the lights being off and where the light switch was located.

"This better not be another one of Taylor's ways to save money to repair that bridge that he always claims needs donations."

"Like the time he tried to claim that we didn't need to light the whole studio just for a town meeting that would only last a few minutes," Lorelai replied. "That is until someone starting throwing spitballs at him."

Luke looked at her knowingly. "Yeah, someone."

"What? Rory was upset and seeing her mother throw spitballs at Taylor made her laugh. It was all in the name of making my kid happy." She nodded her head towards the opposite wall that Luke was currently by. "Light switch is over there."

When Luke managed to find the light switch and flip it on, a chorus of 'surprise' from different directions rang out as the crowd gathered before their eyes also shouted their congratulations on the soon-to-be resident of Stars Hollow and their love for the couple standing in front of them. Lorelai's eyes drifted from the crowd to the pastel decorations that covered the dance studio to the banner that declared this a baby shower to the two woman who had stepped in front of the crowd and were directly responsible for the 'emergency town meeting'.

"Surprise," Rory exclaimed as she approached her mother and Luke. "Happy baby shower."

Lorelai smiled wide. "You threw all this together? Rory, this is amazing."

"Well it wasn't just me," Rory pointed out as her party planning partner-in-crime came to stand beside her. "Sookie did a lot of the work. A real team effort."

"Yes, and I know we were supposed to have a meeting today but I had to help out with this," Sookie said as she gestured her arms to the room and people around her. She stopped short at the sight of the box in Lorelai's hands. "What's that for? We have food here."

"Sookie," Rory almost scolded the older woman.

"Oh right, not the point," Sookie replied with a smile. "You thought it was a town meeting, didn't know about this because this was a surprise. This was hard to keep a secret."

"Well I love it, it's amazing," Lorelai gushed. She turned her head to look at Luke. "Did you know about any of this?"

He shook in head in response. "I didn't know. I thought it was a town meeting like you did."

"We wanted to keep the both of you in the dark," Rory informed them. "Make it a complete surprise."

"And it worked," Lorelai encouraged. "Glad you did it now because if you would have waited longer, a surprise like that might have triggered labor."

"Exactly my thinking," Rory replied. She moved and looped her arm through her mother's. "Come on, I'll show you everything that Sookie and I planned."

"We have all of your favorite foods," Sookie explained as she fell in line behind Lorelai and Rory and walked beside Luke. "Things you've been craving lately, things you've always loved, and food that I thought was essential. And I made a cake! You should see the cake!"

Lorelai stopped to smile at her best friend. "You didn't have to do that much Sookie. But tell me about this cake I've been hearing about."

"How about we just show you?" Rory chimed in. "We'll see the food, the cake, and everything else that Sookie and I have planned carefully. We can spend the rest of the day celebrating my little brother."

Lorelai's eyes gleamed as she spotted a table in the far corner that was piled high with presents, a few that were impeccably wrapped and could only be from her parents. "I spy a present table."

Rory gave a nod of her head. "Yep, those are for later. And mainly for my baby brother, though Miss Patty made hints that what she got you isn't for the baby at all."

"I wouldn't expect it to be," Lorelai agreed.

As Rory led her mother through the cramped dance studio trying to show her everything they had set up for the party, they were stopped by various Stars Hollow residents who wanted to chat about the baby and once again offer congratulations while also trying to pat her belly and feel the baby move for themselves. She quickly excused herself from that, not keen to the idea of everyone trying to touch her belly. Trying to get her mother away from touchy-feely people, Rory led her to the bulletin board that was covered in baby pictures from the expectant couple. Well more baby ones from Luke as Emily recounted how Lorelai destroyed all her baby pictures when she was younger.

After Lorelai commented on just how cute a baby Luke was and how she just knew their son would look exactly like him, Sookie joined in on Rory's explanation of the surprise baby shower and included the various activities and game they had planned, explaining that they only chose certain ones as Rory deemed some of them too cutesy and not something that her mother would enjoy.

* * *

Later that day, at a onesie decorating station, Rory held up her first creation to be scrutinized by Jess. When he made a face that she wasn't happy with, she frowned and turned the onesie back in her direction and tried to figure out where she went wrong. She knew that she wasn't the artistic type but she figured she could something a little basic with the fabric paint yet with the unimpressed look that Jess wore, she doubted her artistic abilities even more than she did while in the midst of decorating.

Jess moved closer by her side, "You have seen a duck before, haven't you?"

"Not funny," Rory pouted. She titled her side to the side as she studied the onesie that lay before her. "It kind of looks like a duck. I think it's cute."

"Whatever you say," Jess replied with a smirk on his face. He pointed his finger at the creation, careful not to touch. "What are those supposed to be?"

Rory scoffed. "Those are his eyes."

Jess held back a laugh. "Those do not look like eyes."

Frustrated, Rory let out a huff. "Well at least I tried, I haven't seen you decorate one."

"I have some ideas bouncing around."

"Sure you do," Rory replied. She took one last look at her creation. "This is really bad, isn't it?"

"It's not so bad," Jess tried to be encouraging. "I mean if you squint your eyes and look at it from an angle then maybe….yeah it's bad."

"Mom would mercilessly mock this."

"Oh yeah, you would be mocked. Probably for the rest of your life over that."

"Maybe I can do another one."

"Maybe try something a little simpler this time," Jess suggested. "Words would be good. Those would be hard to screw up."

Rory grabbed a new onesie from the pile and picked up a blue fabric marker. It only took her a moment to decide on something that she knew her mother and Luke would find hilarious. "Okay, I can't screw this one up," she said as she began to write. "We have a limited supply of onesies."

Across the room, Lorelai sat on what she had declared as her throne with Luke by her side in his equivalent to her declaration of a throne while they were surrounded by a sea of opened and unopened presents. At first their present opening attracted those who bought presents but the act of watching people open presents slowly trickled away as other activities were resumed and the food was consumed. The couple and invited guests had participated in the various games that were thought of and meticulously planned for the baby shower, some begrudgingly participated thanks to those who pouted until they gave in. And though, it wasn't planned by the two responsible for the baby shower, bets were placed with varying dollar amounts as to when the baby would be born and even who the baby would favor more.

She set aside the lacy red lingerie that was so obviously a gift from Miss Patty who suggested they use it tonight and reached across her chair and took Luke's hands in hers. She smiled at him. "We may live in a crazy town but it's full of people who love and care for us."

"You're just saying that because you're surrounded by presents," Luke pointed out.

"The gifts are a plus," Lorelai admitted. She watched the crowd of people who moved around the dance studio, some who stopped by to show off creations from the onesie decorating station. "Our baby is going to grow up so loved."

Luke smiled at her. "That he is."

* * *

 **And snippets of a surprise baby shower without actually getting into the whole thing. Like I said above, I hope to start updating more regularly. I have everything planned out, some that follows the events of S4 with a little twist and some happening earlier on, but I just had trouble actually sitting down to write the ideas out. I haven't forgotten about my other story either, an update is coming soon. Perhaps this weekend?**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer in first chapter.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites. New chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Lorelai ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it back into a messy ponytail. A few curls escaped the elastic band and hung loosely around her face, framing her features. She tugged on the flannel she wore, the one she swiped from Luke long ago now fit tighter than usual around her baby bump but still remained as one of her favorite pieces of comfort clothing. And since she had no plans to go to the inn today, unless it was an absolute emergency that couldn't be solved over the phone, comfort was key. The sweatpants she wore underneath her flannel may be older than most of her clothes and have a few minuscule holes in them but the elastic waistband fit around her pregnant belly just right, which served her just right for the day she had planned.

Her time had been devoted to the inn recently with her putting in long hours almost every day going over the small details and some much larger details and checking in with Tom and the crew to determine whether they were still on schedule and what they could and could not afford at this point. Luke had worried about her, suggesting that she take a little more time off to stay at home and rest because it wasn't good for their baby for her to be this overworked. She begrudgingly agreed to his suggestions because even she knew that she needed to take it a little easier. Though there was still work that needed to be done, she figured that while she was spending the day at home, it would be the perfect time to try and get the nursery in order that was currently overwhelmed with the gifts and baby items they were showered with just a couple of weeks ago.

Walking out of the bathroom, Lorelai made her way over to the bed and picked up the laundry basket of freshly laundered linens. She carried the basket out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the nursery where she moved a few packs of diapers out of the way to put the basket on top of the changing table. Just as her hands grasped a dark blue sheet from the top of the pile in the laundry basket and went to stretch it over the mattress in the crib, the doorbell sounded from downstairs.

She dropped the sheet into the crib and then headed out of the nursery, stopping at the top of the staircase for just a moment before continuing down and heading towards the front door. When she opened it, she was surprised to see Lane standing on the other side of the door. However when the girl held up a to-go bag from the diner, it made a little more sense.

"Danish delivery," Lane declared, stepping into the house as Lorelai stepped back and made way for her enter.

Lorelai plucked the bag from Lane's hand as she simultaneously shut the door behind them. "Thank you hon. Now that I'm complaining but I never ordered a danish."

"Yes, that's correct," Lane agreed. "But Luke thought you might want something more, such as a pastry since it is danish day, so he sent me to deliver it as a surprise."

"Mhmm," Lorelai hummed as she stepped around Lane and turned to head back upstairs, gesturing for the younger girl to follow her. "And this has nothing to do with the fact that he's been concerned with the time I've been putting in at the Dragonfly lately."

Lane hesitated before replying and was glad that Lorelai's back was currently to her. "No, not at all. In fact, he would have brought it himself but there's the whole thing with Cesar's elbow so he had to help him and today is Jess' day off so I was the only one that could bring it over. That's all it is, just a danish."

At the top of the stairs, Lorelai made her way back to the nursery before she turned to face Lane. "Lane, honey, I love you and I've known you for pretty much most of your life. You're like a second daughter to me so I know when you're lying. Spill."

"He just cares about you and the baby," Lane started off because when it came down to it, her loyalty lay more with Lorelai than Luke. She had raised her ways in that her mother hadn't. "And he knows that you've been working a lot without that much help and he's worried about you, so I was kind of sent over here to check in. To check in with food because if you did get upset by his intentions, at least you have a danish."

A chuckle fell from her lips at that. "He's learned from the pregnancy hormones." She paused long enough to set the bag down on the dresser. "Well you can report back to him that like I already promised him this morning, I'm going to take it easy today and focus on getting the nursery somewhat organized."

"He's being careful, so you and the baby are okay," Lane replied.

"I know sweetie." Lorelai placed a hand over her baby bump where she could feel the kicks of her baby boy. "And I am too, he just might be a little more worried and over protective than I am."

Lane gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Well that's Luke."

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed quietly. Then a smile crossed her face. "Do you have to get back to the diner right away?"

Lane thought about it and followed it with a shake of her head. "Not necessarily, it's around the normal morning lull time which means a few customers but nothing too overwhelming. I can stick around for a few minutes, why?"

"Well if he wants to know that I'm taking it easy, I can assure him that I am by getting a little help from a certain someone who I already know is a great help because I've heard about it from Luke and I've seen it firsthand," Lorelai hinted.

Lane gave a swift nod of her head and smiled. "Where do you want me?"'

"Help me make the bed?" Lorelai suggested.

"Happy to."

Lorelai stayed at one end of the crib while Lane moved to the other and grabbed the fitted sheet to stretch over the mattress. When Lorelai tried to lean over the crib to fit the sheet over the corner of the mattress that was furthest away from her, she found that her baby bump impeded this action. Quickly, Lane jumped in and took over the task herself while Lorelai grabbed the additional linens from the laundry basket and passed them off to Lane as needed.

"I didn't mean for you to be doing all the work," Lorelai commented as Lane finished dressing the crib.

"I don't mind Lorelai," Lane assured her. "I'll count it as taking care of the little one, he's already like family to me."

"What a lucky little guy," Lorelai replied. She grabbed a few stuffed animals from a gift bag propped up in the rocking chair and rearranged them inside the crib. "You know some people that I don't know, you know anyone that would be interested in taking care of the little guy?"

"Thinking about adoption?" Lane joked. "Because I know that Rory seems very attached to the idea of a baby brother and I don't think she would let him go easily."

"Oh no, I think that he's definitely a keeper. But Luke and I are looking for someone to take care of him after he's born when we both have to go back to work."

"Like a nanny?"

"Dear god," Lorelai sighed. "Please never let my mother hear you say that word, she'll never let me live it down if she knew that we were thinking about hiring a nanny."

Lane laughed, passing a pack of diapers to Lorelai when asked so she could put them up and out of the way for now. "Avoid conversations with Emily, got it."

"That's my girl."

"I'll help pass it along though."

"Thanks hon," Lorelai said sincerely. "We put an ad out and have interviews scheduled soon but I didn't like the sound of some of them over the phone so I'm not sure how they will be in person. But we will need the help." A pause followed. "I couldn't sway you to take the job, could I?"

"I already have a job," Lane reminded her. "Not sure how Luke would feel if you're stealing his employees."

Lorelai laughed as she walked over to Lane and laid her hands down on the younger girl's shoulders. "Well I've already stolen you for today."

"You did need to get back at him for thinking that he needed to send me over to check in on you."

"See you're already on my side side," Lorelai pointed out with a smile before she recruited Lane's help again to carry the laundry basket downstairs. It was now piled high with tiny articles of baby clothing that needed to be laundered before they were put away. "Well it was just an idea I had. We both know how well most of those can work out."

Lane carried on to the laundry room with Lorelai right behind her. "Like when Rory and I were little and you decided that we could all make our own homemade pizzas."

"Hey I painted over the scorch marks and no one ever knew."

"Except Babette who came running over in her bathrobe when she heard screaming."

"And we all agreed to never talk about it again," Lorelai added on. "We also agreed that I wouldn't attempt cooking again. At least nothing homemade, just the warming up of frozen foods."

"It was for the better."

"Definitely," Lorelai agreed.

"Need any more help?" Lane asked. "I think I can stay awhile longer, if you want the help." Her eyes landed on the laundry basket. "I could do the laundry. Years of hiding certain clothes from Mama Kim taught me how to do my own laundry."

Lorelai smiled at the offer but ultimately refused. "I've got it from here sweetie. Plus if you stay much longer, Luke might worry and send over Cesar to check in on us – disguising it as another food delivery. Then, of course, I'll have to kidnap him like I did with you which will lead to either Luke coming home himself or paying someone else to do his dirty work. Which just means more kidnapping to the point where I'll have most of Stars Hollow in my living room." She took a breath. "It's a vicious cycle."

"Sounds like it," Lane laughed. "I'll go then," she said, bypassing Lorelai and heading out the laundry room. "And report back to Luke that everything is okay over here."

"For extra fun, to see that vein pop up in his forehead..."

Lane gave a nod of acknowledgment as Lorelai's hands went to her shoulders and guided her through the living room and towards the front door. "The one that is always present whenever Taylor is around."

"The very one," Lorelai confirmed. "You can make something else up, that I'm doing jumping jacks or lifting something really heavy."

"He knows you. The jumping jacks he won't believe."

"So stick with the lifting something really heavy," Lorelai encouraged. She stayed in the doorway as Lane headed out. "You can also tell him that I don't need anymore check-ins, I'm an adult who has been successfully taking care of herself for years now."

"I'll pass that along," Lane called back as she headed down the walkway. "Bye Lorelai."

Lorelai replied with her goodbyes to the young girl, adding in that she should think about the offer from earlier because it might not be such a bad idea, before she shut the front door behind her and sauntered back through the living room with the laundry room in mind as her destination.

* * *

Lorelai let out a huff out hot air as tried desperately to follow behind her fast-paced and what-could-almost-be-described-as-manic mother. The more she tried to follow her, the more her walk began to turn into a waddle which she was definitely trying to avoid. She did not want to succumb to the pregnancy waddle. It had happened with Rory and she was sure it was inevitable with her unborn son but following her mother through a crowded mall full of people and terrified salesmen was not the place for the waddle.

She had been at home, relaxing after finishing one load of laundry and putting another on, enjoying the danish that Lane had brought over earlier that day and complaining about the fact that daytime television left a lot to be desired, when the doorbell rang. Grateful for the distraction and thinking that it was yet another food delivery serving as a front for the concerns of a worried husband and soon-to-be-father, she had slowly made her way to the front door talking, mainly to herself, about how if this was another food delivery it was about time because it was lunch time and the leftovers in the fridge just weren't doing it for her or baby. Yet the door didn't open to an employee of the diner or anyone bearing food, instead she came face-to-face with her mother.

Just moments into her mother's visit, she found herself being guided up the stairs so she could change out of the comfiest clothes she owned and into something more appropriate for a lunch together with her mother. The idea of a lunch out of the house and that didn't consist of leftovers from the past couple of days lured her away from the tasks she had at home and into her mother's car. Besides it was just laundry and she could always get to it later.

But lunch had turned into "just a quick stop by the car dealership" because her mother wanted to show her a couple of models of SUVs she had picked out for them but hadn't yet made her final decision on. And then, despite protests, the car dealership stop was followed by a trip to the mall because after seeing how her daughter looked like a frumpled mess earlier, Emily insisted on buying at least a few pieces of maternity clothing and maybe a few more things for her grandson.

Lorelai sighed and decided that the ridiculously overpriced plush chair that she had stopped beside was a great place for her to rest while her mother continued on whatever spree she was currently on. They had blew a maternity store and snagged a few pieces of fashionable clothing before Lorelai had to stop her mother from buying clothes that she would never in a million years put on her son. And now it seemed that her mother was trying to buy out the mall. She did have to admit that the one perk of shopping with her mother was the fact that she didn't have to carry her own bags because that was the job of a terrified retail worker that unknowingly asked if they needed any help.

Since Emily hadn't notice that she stopped and was currently resting, Lorelai dug through her purse and pulled out her cellphone. Her fingers flew over the keys as she dialed a familiar number then pressed the phone up to her ear.

"I've been kidnapped," Lorelai reported as soon as her husband's voice came over the line.

"Lorelai?" Luke asked.

"Yes," Lorelai answered. "And I'm calling to tell you that since you obviously haven't sent over anyone else to check in on me and have no clue how I'm doing, I want you to know that I have been kidnapped – abducted, whatever you want to call it, by an insane woman."

"Is this because I sent Lane over this morning?" Luke asked. "I wanted you to have a danish while they were still fresh."

"And you wanted to make sure that I wasn't at the inn, when I already told you that I was planning to stay at home," Lorelai replied, watching as her mother spouted off information to a saleswoman before stopping to peruse a lamp. "And I was. I was at home, doing some laundry and fixing up the nursery."

"Lane told me."

"Right, but I did stop to relax and watch a little tv, but then my mother came over and decided that we needed to go to lunch. Just the two of us because we never do things just the two of us," Lorelai continued on wondering when her mother would notice that she wasn't behind her. "Lunch was fine but then she suddenly remembered that she needed to go by the car dealership and then decided that I needed new clothes if all I could wear was my sweats and your flannel shirt."

"So she kidnapped you," Luke concluded. "Where are you? Do you need me to come get you?"

Though he couldn't see her over the phone, she gave a shake of her head. "No babe, I'm fine. Baby is fine too, he's currently showing off his soccer skills. I'm hiding out, trying to figure out how long I can stay in this chair before a salesman sees me and realizes I have no intention of buying it, and figure out how long this spree of my mother's is going to last."

"Are you sure that you don't want me to come and get you?" Luke offered again. "I'm at the diner but Cesar and Lane can cover for me if you need me."

"I'm good Luke," Lorelai refused again. "There's no need to worry, baby and I resting. Might talk my mom out of this shopping spree and head to the food court, the pretzels are calling my name."

"As long as you don't spoil your dinner."

"If we're home by then."

"Lorelai."

"Kidding," Lorelai assured him. "I'll be home soon."

"I just worry about you," Luke confessed. "Especially now that you're carrying our child. I want you both to be okay."

Lorelai smiled softly to herself while her hand ran lovingly over her baby bump. "You do enough worrying for the both of us. I'll call you my mother tries to drag me anywhere else."

"You do that."

"Bye babe."

Lorelai waited until he replied with his goodbye and an 'I love you,' before she flipped her phone shut and slid it back into her purse. Turns out it was perfect timing since that's the exact time that her mother noticed she was missing. Lorelai waved her over to the chair and didn't even attempt to move when her mother stopped in front of her and asked her what she was doing.

"I'm resting because my crazy mother decided to drag her pregnant daughter all around the mall when she was only promised lunch," Lorelai answered. "I'm all for shopping sprees but in case you failed to notice, I'm carrying a little extra weight which means its more work to follow you."

"Oh come on Lorelai, I'm not that bad," Emily replied.

Lorelai sighed because this wasn't her mother. Not that she had spent a lot of time shopping with her mother but she knew that this definitely wasn't it. She coupled this with the fact that she felt like her mother hadn't been acting like herself for months now. She had acted like something was bothering her, yet every time she approached the issue her mother always shut her down and insisted that everything was fine.

"You nearly trampled Steve," Lorelai pointed out.

Confused, Emily asked, "Who is Steve?"

"Steve," Lorelai stressed. "The guy that you made carry our bags."

"I asked him to hold them for us, not follow us around the store with the bags," Emily replied in a stern manner. "It's not his fault that he cannot follow simple directions."

Lorelai blew out a breath and she pushed herself up from the chair. It took a little more effort than usual but when she was standing, she wrapped her arm around her mother's shoulders and said, "Come on, the lunch we had was good but it's gone. I need a snack."

"I'm shopping, Lorelai."

"Yes I know you are," Lorelai began in a tone that was reminiscent of a how a mother would speak to a young child. "But you should leave some stuff for the other people in the mall."

"You don't have to speak to me like I'm a child."

"Hey mom," Lorelai prodded on as she guided her away from the salespeople and slowly but surely out of the store. "Have you ever been to the food court?"

* * *

Armed with a cinnamon sugar pretzel and a blueberry smoothie for herself, and a table laden down with a few other treats and drinks for sampling, Lorelai had introduced her mother to the food court. She promised a proper introduction on a day when they hadn't already eaten and could properly sample more of the varied cuisine rather than just sugary treats but for now this would do because it was one of her pregnancy cravings.

"What's this?" Emily asked, indicating the drink in her hand she had just sipped on.

"Orange Julius," Lorelai answered. "A classic."

"I see why, it's very good," Emily replied. She set her cup down and reached for a second pretzel that Lorelai had opted for. She watched as her daughter brushed crumbs off her shirt and then stilled her hand as she smiled, obviously feeling the baby kick. "I should have been more careful about dragging you all around the mall today. Resting for you during the day is good for you in this state."

Lorelai gave a wave of her hand at the comment. "I'm good and your grandson is good. I know Luke is always worried about how hard I work but I know my limits. I'm learning them more now with the pregnancy but I can't sit at home all day. I'm opening an inn, I have to work. I'm not an invalid."

"You've always had a great work ethic," Emily remarked and then added on, "Like your father."

Lorelai gave the slightest shrug of her shoulders as she reached for a small dish of caramel dip for her pretzel. "Not all from Dad, from you too."

"Oh, please. I order maids and salespeople around. That's different. I've never done anything."

She may have had her differences with her mother in the past and they still weren't on the best terms, still she hated even the slightest hint of sadness and vulnerability in her mother's voice. "Mom, come on. That's not true."

Emily disagreed. "Yes it is Lorelai. It's just frivolous. I buy things. Things I don't even want. I can't even do that sometimes. You refused to let me buy things for my grandson."

"I refused to let you buy him clothes so he'll look like a sailor," Lorelai replied. "Cute but too many frills. He doesn't even have a boat."

Emily didn't meet her daughter's eyes. Instead she reached for a plastic fork and knife to eat her pretzel with. "Still, it's just a frivolous life."

"No, it's not," Lorelai stressed, trying to make her mother hear her. "What about the DAR? Or any other of the organizations you're a member of? You lead most of them, and if you don't, I'm sure you lead the person that is supposed to be leading and you do a better job than that person ever could. And the parties and events you organize, they're always great and meticulously planned. Where do you think I learned that from? Certainly not from Dad. It's not frivolous. You enjoy it."

"Your father doesn't always seem to think so."

"You have got to tell me what's going on." Lorelai sighed. "If not for me, for your grandson. So he'll come into a world where his grandparents aren't fighting and keeping their daughter out of the loop."

Emily cut her eyes to her daughter. "Your father and I aren't fighting."

"Okay, fine. You're not fighting," Lorelai said to appease her mother. "But something is going on. Believe it or not, I want to help."

Lorelai waited for a response from her mother but she seemed too focused on slicing the pretzels into bite size pieces before even tasting the cinnamon sugar covered treat. She shook her head, it seemed like this was going to be the same as every other time she tried to talk to her mother. There was no denying that the woman was stubborn.

"Whatever it is," Lorelai spoke softly. "Just talk to him. Stop denying that there is nothing going on, that's not going to help. Talk to him."

"He's always so busy," Emily commented. "He's either in his office or off and away meeting clients with Jason. He's always distracted."

"No, that's not an excuse," Lorelai interjected. "Talk to him. Make him talk. Make him listen to you. A real talk over what's bothering you, whatever that may be."

"He needs to shave that ridiculous mustache. Have you seen that mustache?"

Lorelai nodded. The last Friday night dinner she went to was a debut to the fact that her father now sported a mustache. "It looks like a caterpillar is sleeping under his nose. If you hate it that much, you can always shave it off while he's sleeping."

"Lorelai!" Emily scolded with just a hint of a smile on her face.

"What?" Lorelai asked, slightly shrugging her shoulders. "I told Luke that's what I'll do if he ever decides to grow a mustache like that." She adopted a more serious tone. "Talk to him. Make him listen. If the problem is that he's spending too much time with his new business partner, then give me Jason's number. I'll handle Digger. If it's something else, whatever it is, I know you and Dad can handle it. You're a team."

Emily averted her eyes away from her daughter as she lifted a bite-size piece of the pretzel to her mouth. Only after she finished the bite did she meet her daughter's eyes. "This is good. Very sugary but good."

Lorelai smiled and slid the caramel dip towards her mother. "For a real sugar rush, try this."

* * *

As Emily pulled her car to a stop in front of her daughter's house, she stole a glance over at Lorelai who had fallen asleep on the car ride home. She was leaned up against the window, her hair had fallen down from where she had it pulled back and now hung in front of her house. Emily reached over and brushed a few of the curls behind her daughter's ears who mumbled "five more minutes" at the interruption in her sleep. She smiled softly and exited the car at the same time that Luke came out the front door. She alerted him that Lorelai had fallen asleep so it would probably be best if he helped her out of the car.

"I'll get the bags," Emily said to Luke as she walked around to the trunk of her car while he tried to reason with Lorelai that she couldn't sleep in the car for a multitude of reasons. One of them being that he had made them dinner and it would just go to waste if she spent the night in her mother's car.

Emily grabbed the few bags of clothing and other miscellaneous items that she had purchased for her daughter and grandson and followed behind Luke as he led Lorelai into the house. She hadn't only purchased items for them, Rory had a few presents coming her way but those were left in the car because she could always surprise her granddaughter with a stop by Yale. As she entered the house, Emily set the bags down in the living room when Luke assured her it was okay because he could put them away later.

"I should go," Emily spoke up. "Need to get back home before the traffic gets bad."

"You could stay for dinner, if you want," Luke offered. "I made enough."

"Yeah Mom, stay," Lorelai encouraged through a yawn as she leaned against Luke's side.

Emily gave a shake of her head. "No, really. I should go. I need to get home to your father."

Lorelai exchanged a knowing look with her mother. "Good." She pushed away from leaning against Luke and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I'm going to go change before dinner."

"Go on up," Luke encouraged. "I'll set the table."

Emily watched as her daughter smiled and remarked that her husband was a great man before she turned away from them and headed towards the staircase. Once she was no longer in view or hearing distance, Emily spoke up again.

"I know you're worried about her working too hard and I probably shouldn't have dragged her all around the mall today, I don't know what I was thinking, but she knows what she is capable of, she wouldn't do anything intentionally to harm herself or the baby."

"I'm well aware of that," Luke replied. He sighed. "I can't help but worry about her. She's doing a lot of the work on her own. I've offered my help but she's refused."

Emily nodded because that was just like her daughter. "She's stubborn just like her father." She turned to leave but needed to say one last thing. "You're taking care of her though, that's what matters." She gave a nod of her head. "Goodnight Luke."

Luke walked with his mother-in-law to the front door and said his goodnight and goodbyes to her while stating that yes, they would be at the next Friday night dinner. Just like every other one that had been to recently. Once he closed the door behind her, he moved over to the bags she had brought in and scoffed at the sheer amount of stuff packed into them. With a heavy sigh, he hauled the bags up into his arms and began to carry them to the nursery wondering if babies really did need this many clothes.

* * *

 **So Emily's shopping freak-out happened a little earlier in my timeline. Still plenty more to come.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	23. Chapter 23

**No, your eyes aren't deceiving you and I actually updated after forever. I apologize. I have excuses but really sums up to the fact that I just couldn't get anything to cooperate when it came to this story. I finally figured it out. In fact, I figured it out so much that after this chapter is posted there will be a few hours before I post another chapter. Then maybe a few days until the next one, but I promise it won't be forever. But you know the revival is coming just next week so my brain will be completely occupied with that. But I promise that I will finish this story and I will try my very best to get into regular updates. Not only for this story but for my other one as well. If you're still reading this, I hope you enjoy and don't hate me too much.**

* * *

"Thanks for coming."

Lorelai plastered on a polite smile as she stood in the entryway with her hand resting on the back of the open front door as she watched a head of blonde curls bop down the driveway and to the black car parked out front. She tossed out a quick wave before blond curls got into her car and started it up. As soon as the car began to pull away, Lorelai slammed the front door and dropped the smile from her face then turned to face Luke who stood behind her.

"No," she said pointedly, stepping by him and heading back into the living room where she sat on the couch that she recently vacated and reached for a single sheet of paper before crumbling it into a ball and tossing it on the floor.

Luke followed her, stopping to pick up the paper ball that she tossed. He didn't bother to unravel the crumpled paper, instead he held it in his hands. "Why? What was wrong with her?"

Lorelai looked up at him as if he had missed the last thirty minutes of their lives, which she now considered wasted time. "You mean Little Miss No Bra?"

Luke blew out a breath, shaking his head in the process. "That's not..." he tried to argue but trailed off. If the look on Lorelai's face meant anything, it meant that she had already made up her mind and there was no use in trying to contradict her. Still he unfurled the tossed away résumé and placed it back down on the table. "She had a lot of experience."

She scoffed. "And I'm guessing that most of the experience isn't in childcare." She reached for the piece of paper and crumbled it up again just to spite the latest nanny candidate that walked out the door. When the paper ball hit the floor, she leaned back into the couch cushions and closed her eyes. "We're not hiring someone that spent the entire interview flirting with you."

Luke didn't bother to argue against that accusation either. Arguing would only lead to a fight and he was still kicking himself over a comment he made in which he inferred that Lorelai was similar to her mother in certain ways. That was a few days ago and he was just allowed back in their bad the night before. Instead he joined her on the couch, resting one of his hands on top of hers that caressed her baby bump. "We'll find someone else," he assured her.

"At this rate, I highly doubt it," Lorelai stubbornly argued.

It had been a long morning, verging into the afternoon, of interviewing potential nanny candidates and both of them, mainly Lorelai, finding something wrong with each and every one. The faults they found were more than enough to send each one out the door with the promise to call and follow up on the interview when there was really no promise there at all. It didn't help that their past week had been sprinkled with fitting in potential nanny candidates here and there in between both of their respective jobs and the sole duties that came along with owning their own businesses, all of which was compounding stress for the both of them.

Lorelai sighed. "Maybe this was a stupid idea. Hiring someone. I hated when my parents tried to do it when Rory was little and I was still living at home."

"It's not a stupid idea," Luke replied. "We both have full-time jobs, we can't expect to take him to work everyday with us. We'll need a little help."

She gave a nod of her head in agreement. "And that coming from you means a lot." She chuckled, opening her eyes to look at Luke who was casting her a curious look as to why she was laughing. "Or we'll just buy one of those things where you strap the baby to you and we'll carry him like that to work everyday. Imagine the business you'll have in the diner; the handsome diner owner and the adorable baby strapped to his chest."

"An accident waiting to happen. Not going to happen," Luke said definitely.

She smiled at him then leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. "We'll see about that."

"Not going to happen," he repeated, sterner and more definite than before.

"Alright, whatever you say babe," she agreed though she was already planning to stop by a few stores just to see if they had one in stock.

Lorelai left herself relax back into his arms for a few minutes because she knew this moment would be short lived seeing as he would need to get to the diner soon while she would have to head to the inn for a meeting with Tom and his crew as well as Sookie and Michel. Their uninterrupted moments just to themselves seemed few and far between lately with both of their responsibilities pulling them in separate directions only to be together at night that was either spent going over paperwork for the inn again and again or making sure things were in place for their son's arrival. On top of everything else, she got the added bonus of Luke worrying over her every move; something he had done from the beginning but only seemed to get worse as her pregnancy progressed.

She hadn't even noticed that her eyes were once again closing and she was drifting off to sleep until Luke nudged her and whispered something in her ear. "Hmm?" she mumbled, forcing her eyes to open and to focus on her husband.

"I said that I was going to go ahead and go to the diner, give Cesar a break," Luke replied. "Why don't you head upstairs and rest?"

"Too far," Lorelai groaned before reality set back in. "And there's no time. I have a meeting with Michel and Sookie soon that I don't need to miss. We're getting closer to everything being finished and as the person whose dream this is, I have to be there."

"And you should rest if you're tired," Luke added in. Since he knew her schedule, he continued on. "Your meeting isn't for another hour, you have some time."

"You're the one who moved my date book," Lorelai playfully accused.

Nodding, he said, "I moved it to your nightstand when you fell asleep trying to write in it before bed the other night."

"The doctor rescheduled our appointment, I had to put it in there before I forgot. There's too much going on for this pregnant brain to keep up with."

"Which, again, is why you should rest," Luke replied, noting that there were no protests coming from Lorelai over the idea of a nap. She even leaned more into him which he used to his advantage to gently lay her down on the cushions of the couch as he moved to stand up. "I'll go get a blanket."

"Thank you," Lorelai murmured sleepily, dimly wondering why she argued against the fact of resting for a just a few minutes in the first place. Though trying to get the inn up and running was tiring her out, she still found it hard to sleep most nights. She envied the fact that Luke could sleep with no problems while she struggled to find a comfortable position.

As she was drifting off to sleep, she registered the feeling of a blanket being carefully on top of her and then the pressing of lips to her forehead before Luke mentioned that he has headed off to the diner now and he could call her if she wanted to make sure she still made her meeting at the inn on time. She mumbled something and wasn't sure if he understood her but she didn't have time to contemplate that as she was comfortable for more than a few minutes and wasn't going to let this moment of at least a few minutes sleep go to waste.

* * *

"You poached my employee," Luke accused, taking a minute to sit across from Lorelai at her preferred table in the diner now that she was no longer comfortable sitting on a stool at the counter that was always closest to him and the coffee.

"It wasn't an active poaching, she came to me," Lorelai reasoned, pushing aside what was left of her very late lunch and reaching for the freshly made milkshake and plucking the cherry off the top. "Besides, she promised to continue working here as long as you needed her and even used you as a reference."

Luke watched as the person in question buzzed around the diner, refilling drinks and taking orders before ringing up those who were waiting to pay and checking on the other patrons to make sure everyone had everything they needed. "She's the best employee I have."

"Don't let Jess hear you say that," Lorelai teased, knowing that Jess wouldn't care because he had even commented that with Lane around, Luke didn't need him at all. Still he kept the job. "Now, she'll be the best person to help watch our son when we both have to work. She's like family."

"Family we're paying to watch our child."

"Exactly," Lorelai smiled. She was happy that they actually found someone they could trust to leave their child with once he was born and they needed to go back to work. "But it will be different if say we want to go out one night and Rory volunteers to babysit because I'm not going to pay her."

"Have to draw the line somewhere," Luke deadpanned.

She nodded in agreement to his obvious sarcasm and sipped from the milkshake she currently held in her hands. While she savored frozen chocolatey goodness, Luke cleared her plate from the table and carried them back to the kitchen. While the spot was open, Lane stopped by and thanked Lorelai once again for the nanny gig as she called it, in which she promised to take the very best care of their child while introducing him to the greatest and most rocking music in the world so he would be the most musically educated baby in Stars Hollow. There was no reluctance when it came to hiring her though it did leave Luke with one less employee. He had agreed that Lane would be a good fit as their nanny though he still felt incredibly awkward over the issue of hiring someone to work for them, but knew that it was one of their best options when it came to two working parents.

As more customers got up to leave, Lane left Lorelai at her table and breezed up to the counter where she processed their payments and wished them a good day before moving back from behind the counter to clear tables. With the time alone since Luke was working again, she pulled her day planner from her bag and flipped to today's date that was marked with sticky notes reminding her of certain things that needed to be done. She pulled a few from the page and crumbled them since she managed to tackle them today though the meeting at the inn was unproductive for a number of reasons. But even with the unproductive ways that engulfed her today, one being a much longer nap than intended, there was one bright spot. One tiny and shiny, foil covered spot that had began to make all her dreams seem like a reality.

Attached to today's page in her day planner and copied down in an official Dragonfly reservation book and to be added to their computer system when it was up and running as the very first reservation for the Dragonfly Inn. Upon discovering that their phone system was up and working and people were actually calling to set up reservations for their opening, she hastily scrambled to find something, anything, to mark the occasion down. Anything just happened to be a gum wrapper she couldn't even remember shoving in the pocket of her jacket. Michel argued over the value of the gum wrapper and it's legitimacy in reservations but his opinion wouldn't sway her in believing that this reservation was one of the best things that had happened in their quest to actually get the Dragonfly to a place where it was ready to open it's door to who so ever wanted a place to stay. Even if it was scribbled down on a gum wrapper.

"Your first reservation."

At the sound of his voice, Lorelai looked over her shoulder and up at Luke. "Isn't it wonderful?" she asked, ignoring the fact that it was eerily close to her due date.

"It's a gum wrapper," Luke echoed sentiments from moments earlier.

"Oh now you sound like Michel," Lorelai replied as Luke moved from the behind her and pulled out the chair that he occupied earlier before going back to work. She knew that him sitting with her would only last a few minutes since it was just a matter of time before the dinner rush began. "Which, by the way, is a sentence I hope I never have to say to you again. That's grounds for ending this marriage."

"That soon?"

"Keep it up buddy." She leaned in conspiratorially and as far as her pregnant belly would let her without pushing uncomfortably against the edge. "And just because I'm not making you sleep on the couch anymore, don't think I've forgotten that suggestion you made that I'm like my mother."

"I've stated my regrets." He leaned forward too, a gentler look on his face than the expression Lorelai held. His hand covered hers, squeezing for assurance that he was truly sorry for the comments he made earlier in the week even if there were an ounce of truth in them. "I'm proud of you."

Her expression softened at his words and a smile played at her lips. No words were needed at the moment but she eagerly accepted the kiss that came afterward that was him getting out of the chair to plant one on her lips since there was no way that she could lean far enough across the table to reciprocate. When the kiss broke and was commented on by Babette and Miss Patty who had entered the diner for an early dinner, he slipped his hands into hers once more and helped her up to a standing position. Though she did protest that she didn't need that much help up out of a diner chair as she wasn't that big yet.

"You're closing tonight?" Lorelai asked, the answer already echoed inside her head though she hoped there was a slight chance it might have changed since this morning.

"Promised Cesar the night off since he'll be putting in more time soon," Luke answered.

Lorelai sighed. "Alright. I might head back to the inn, see if there's anything to be done around there. Check in again with Tom. Probably go by Sookie's, see if I can get her focused on some official Dragonfly business that needs to be dealt with."

Luke gave a curt nod of his head, knowing that there wasn't much use in urging her not to work so hard because he had repeated the sentiments many times and it always ended in the same way. She was going to work just as hard as she wanted and then maybe more since her business partners weren't the most reliable, but he also knew that she knew when to pull back and limit herself for her own health as well as the baby's.

"I'll see you at home later."

"You're not getting rid of me just yet," Lorelai informed him. She started to collect her things from the table. "I need something sweet to take with me and since you're not an option at the moment, I'm thinking pie."

He smirked. "Cherry or apple?"

"Both."

Her requested something sweet was in her hands before she had even pulled her jacket off the back of the chair and failed to button it around her pregnant belly. She balanced the box of pie in one hand while the other held onto her tote bag that held her day planner and a couple of different binders all relating to the Dragonfly and it's renovation. They shared another kiss before she was out the door and headed towards the newly received vehicle, courtesy of her mother and father. Per her wishes, it wasn't a minivan. They had opted for an SUV with the not so subtle hint that it had plenty of room for one child and perhaps more if they should feel so inclined in the future.

* * *

Later that night, with an 'oof' and an instant regret that she landed on her back instead of on her side, Lorelai flopped down onto her bed and tried to kick off the flats she had picked out that morning. When they fell from her feet and clattered against the hardwood floor, she turned on her side and reached down into the pocket of her jacket and dug around for her cellphone. She found it in a matter of seconds and instantly pressed two on her speed dial and waited for her daughter to answer. When Rory's voice played in her ear, alerting her that she was away from the phone but would call back as soon as possible, she first wondered why the message wasn't playful as their messages had always been before she hung up the phone and tried again.

On her third attempt to call with no answer, she decided to finally leave a message. "Hey kid, just checking in and to let you know about the horses at the inn. I know what happened with the pony before but that's a once in a lifetime thing. Just call me when you get this, sweets."

With that, she pushed herself up from the bed and moved around the room collecting more comfortable clothes than the slightly business appropriate outfit she had worn all day. Clothes were littered across the floor as she stripped and changed into the sweats and oversized t-shirt that used to be more useful in hiding her pregnant shape. As she made her way downstairs, she succumbed to the pregnant waddle that she had sworn she wouldn't succumb to but she was alone with no one to see, and with no one to see, no one could make fun of her.

In the kitchen, she opened the freezer and reached for a pint of ice cream before opening the fridge and grabbing a can of whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Perfect wallowing food. Not that she was in full wallow mode but with Rory answering her phone and having no one to vent to at the moment, she would wallow with ice cream.

She had tried to be optimistic the first few times Sookie and Michel weren't completely available for meetings at the Dragonfly because she understood their had their own lives just as she did, but as the opening date grew closer and more responsibilities needed to be handled, the optimism was fading. She delegated responsibilities whenever they were around for meetings and when they had the time but still excuses were to be made for why they couldn't always accomplish what needed to be done. Leaving her to cover her work as well as some of theirs. And she hated that she felt this way, especially about two people she cared about, but she didn't feel as if they were invested just as much as she was. Of course she knew that they were but their work ethic proved differently.

Their meeting today had gone well at first, with all three of them there and then their first reservation made, but it was right after that, that things started to shift. There was a list of things that needed to be done and picked up over the course of the rest of this week and the next and while she tried to divide them evenly amongst the three of them, she still ended up carrying more. With Michel's other job that was paying the bills until the Dragonfly would open, his hours were limited as to when he could actually help out. And Sookie had Davey who needed to go to the doctor and only stayed with a certain babysitter who had a higher rate than most. She, herself, had her own doctor's appointments but figured the errands she needed to run were in the same area she could kill two birds with one stone, even when it meant bringing Luke along.

With the ice cream now dolloped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, she waddled into the living room and curled up on the couch in what she hoped would be a comfortable position for more than a few minutes. As she wallowed and worried over the course of all the errands and practically last minute steps that needed to be taken for the inn before they delved into the real last moments of getting the inn ready to open on their scheduled day, she felt the reassuring movements of her baby boy and knew that he was happy and healthy. Which was exactly what she needed at the moment to prevent herself from the funk that she felt trying to ruin her mood.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed!**

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 **Next chapter to follow soon.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Another update! Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Just call me when you get this sweets."

A heavy sigh fell from Lorelai's lips as she clicked the end button on her phone, signaling the end of what seemed like the twentieth voicemail message she had left for her daughter over the past couple of days. The messages were brief and contained just snippets of the occurrences in their lives but it served as their sole form of communication as their separate career and school schedules kept them just busy enough that only a missed call and voicemail notification let them know of the attempted contact. She hated the feeling that she constantly missed what she knew would only be a brief conversation with her daughter but at least it would be some contact that wasn't through a disembodied voice from hours before. At this rate, the only way she was going to actually speak to her daughter was by driving to Yale and waiting outside her dorm room. Though Luke objected, it wasn't completely scratched off her list of possibilities.

"Rory didn't answer again?"

Lorelai slid her phone into the pocket of her jacket that lay on the truck seat next to her and lifted her gaze to meet her husband's eyes briefly before he focused back on the road as he drove them away from their doctor's appointment. "Nope, but her voicemail and I are getting very friendly."

He took one hand off the steering wheel to briefly tap his knuckles against her knee. A small gesture but comforting in it's own way. "You'll talk soon. She's probably in class right now or something. Or studying, we both know she can't be bothered then."

Though her mood had gradually dampened over the past few days and had put her in a funk, she felt a smile playing at her lips with the way he stressed the last sentence with his own awareness of just how peculiar Rory was when it came to her studying habits. Still she was a mother so she worried especially since Rory had casually mentioned a pile of schoolwork in a few of the voicemails left plus the additional work she was doing for the paper. She knew how Rory could get when stressed.

"Jess was just up there yesterday with her and he said she was doing fine, just busy like you are. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, you two just keep missing each other. You'll talk soon," Luke reassured her.

Lorelai gave a slight nod of her head while he watched her before his attention went back to the road. "I know. We've never gone this long without talking though, even if we fought and that talking was all in passive aggressive sentences, we were still talking. Not leaving each other voicemails every few hours."

"You want me to drive to Yale? You can be known as the crazy, pregnant lady walking around campus and looking for Rory. I'm sure that will help her fit in there."

"And if I said yes, you would do it?" Lorelai asked.

"Unwillingly because I don't think it's completely necessary since you're just missing each others calls then yes," Luke answered. "This isn't going to go on forever. You're both having a few bad days."

"While I appreciate the efforts you're willing to take to do something you don't want to do just for me, it won't be necessary," Lorelai replied. "Because while we're still in the area, I have a few errands."

Luke blew out a low breath. "You heard the doctor Lorelai."

"Yes, I did," Lorelai steadied her voice because she was not going to let this turn into an argument. "And I'm going to listen and slow it down some but I don't have to completely give up work. We're already in the area, it only makes sense that we stop. If we go home now, I'll just turn around and come back by myself. Besides I've been pinky-promised by Sookie that's she going to hold up her end her responsibilities, so that's a lot of weight off my shoulders and an almost free afternoon when we're done here."

Begrudgingly, Luke asked, "Where to?"

"Well first…."

Luke interrupted, "First? Just how many errands do you have to run today?"

"Just three stops," Lorelai replied quickly, stopping as a thought fluttered through her mind. "Maybe a fourth one, I need to make a call. We're just picking up a few things for the Inn. If you need to get back to the diner, I can do this myself later this afternoon. I just thought it would convenient to do it while we were here for the appointment."

"No, it's fine Lorelai. I don't need to get back right away," Luke told her. He took his eyes off the road for just a moment and cast a glance in her direction, "Where to first?"

She gave him a brilliant and beaming smile, happy to have someone to run errands with her and that this wasn't going to turn into an argument over how much she was working. Luke had brought up his own concerns during their doctor's appointment and it was suggested that she cut back some in her work to make sure she was taking care of herself and her unborn son. She promised to heed the doctor's advice and lighten her workload, which she thought could be possible as long as her business partners stuck to their delegated responsibilities.

When Luke prompted again because she just remained smiling at him instead of answering, Lorelai rattled off directions and the name of the place they needed to head to first and exactly what they were supposed to pick up. While he drove, she listed off the other places that they needed to drop by which were various antique and thrift stores to pick up a few odds and ends and some pieces of furniture that she deemed an absolute must to make The Dragonfly a reality and a unique spot for people to stay. Their first destination was conveniently close to the doctor's office, so they arrived in no time at all.

"You know," Lorelai said as Luke opened the passenger side door for her. "If you're a good boy in here, I'll treat you to a nice lunch when we're done."

Luke surprised her when he wrapped her up in his arms and ducked his head to whisper into her ear, "And later tonight?"

Her answer came in the form of a soft and lingering kiss. Although she was feeling anything but sexy at the moment, especially after long days of being a human incubator, the way he was looking at her and the low growl had reignited some of that passion. She pulled back from the kiss but just barely. "Maybe, if you're a really, really good boy."

"I promise to be on my best behavior."

"And usually I want the exact opposite of that."

She leaned against him for just a moment before slipping her hand into his and lacing their fingers together and led him towards the store where wonders of the future Dragonfly awaited. She was happy that he was tagging along and helping her out in a way that he knew how because between the pregnancy and her dream of the inn, things were getting overwhelming. Which is why she assured Luke and the doctor, she would try to slow it down a little. It also made her grateful for moments like these when Luke was helping out and her responsibilities were evenly delegated among business partners and she could take the time she desperately needed to polish off one day of her to-do list in a minimal amount of time.

* * *

Her mouth was pressed in a line so thin that it made her appear as if she had no lips at all and she was straining not to yell to a point where she was sure her brain was going to explode if she didn't express her mind as loudly as possible, but the sleeping baby in the corner of the room was the strength of her restraint. Besides still not being able to reach Rory, though she received a couple more voicemails, things had been going well for the day. After the doctor's appointment, she and Luke had successfully, and rather quickly, tidied up her to-do list by picking up everything she had delegated to herself and even knocking out another small task that wasn't scheduled until the next week. Since she promised, they celebrated with what was going to be a long lunch until an unexpected phone call ruined the mood.

Not only was she peeved at Sookie for not following through on a promise that she vividly remembered her business partner agreeing to, the happy mood she had going with Luke dissipated too when she ended the lunch early and threatened to catch a bus back to Stars Hollow if they didn't leave immediately in hopes of getting to the inn in time to stop the delivery men. With avoiding a dine-and-dash and oddly busy mid-afternoon traffic, the delivery men were long gone by the time by the time she arrived. Luke had suggested that she calm down and they go back home since there was nothing to do about the sink that was supposed to be delivered and she agreed to the extent that she needed to have a talk with Sookie first.

"No, Sookie," Lorelai cut her friend and business partner off from making an excuse and kept her voice as level as she could, "This was your responsibility. You told me that you could handle this."

"I said I'm sorry!" Sookie raised her voice and then instantly flinched as she waited to see if the sudden change in her voice awoke her sleeping baby.

Lorelai seemed to be on the same page as she froze in place and knew, first hand, just how cranky babies could be without a proper nap. When Davey remained sleeping, she spoke again. "I know, believe me I know. I've heard that. But that's not what I need."

"Lorelai," Sookie sighed her friend's name because she was flat-out exhausted and couldn't even remember what it was she was supposed to do though it had just been discussed. "I'm trying here."

"Barely." She knew her tone had turned harsh and it was evident in the offended look that crossed Sookie's face.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that we're trying to launch a business. It means that I've been at every meeting. I've been at the inn or working for the inn every second that I can. I've been there for you couldn't be there because Davey had a doctor's appointment. I had one myself this morning and then drug Luke all across town because there were things that still needed to be done. And I just wanted to take a few minutes and have lunch with him because he's been worried about me and baby lately, but before our food even hit the table, I got a phone call telling me that I had to okay a sink that I know nothing about."

"I said I'm sorry," Sookie apologized again once Lorelai finished her rant. "I'm sorry I missed the meeting. I don't know what else I can say."

"There's nothing you need to say, you need to be here."

"I'm here," Sookie said, growing frustrated with lack of sleep and this argument. "But I have a baby to worry about."

"So do I," Lorelai pointed out, "He's still incubating so that makes it a little easier for me to be at every meeting, but I still have to worry about him."

"It's not like I planned on being pregnant while we were doing this."

"Neither did I."

Sookie moved to sit down on the couch and hoped Lorelai would do the same but she remained standing. "It was one meeting."

"It was one meeting that you promised to be at because you're specific about everything that goes into your kitchen and I love that about you Sookie, but it also makes it so I don't know what's okay and what's not okay for the kitchen. Which is why I needed you to be there today," Lorelai tried to sympathize because she knew in a short matter of time, she was going to be giving birth and going through the same thing. "But this wasn't just one meeting, it's been every meeting you missed. Every time I've pulled double the weight because my business partner wasn't there."

"Has Michel received this same treatment?"

"We're not paying him to be around."

Sookie picked up a pillow from the couch and clutched it to her chest. Her reply was hesitant but it finally came. "Look, this really isn't what I'm supposed to help with, anyhow."

"What are you talking about?"

"This. The planning, the decision making – that's always been you. That's what you know. I'm not good with any of that. I'm a chef, I cook. My part comes later."

"Not when your a business partner, it doesn't," Lorelai snapped. She closed her eyes briefly when she felt a slight tightening in her belly and tried to calm herself down. "I'm drowning here trying to do all of this myself and I need my business partner. I need you before we open."

Sookie stressed her next statement. "I'm doing the best I can."

Lorelai gave a shake of her head and nearly rolled her eyes because Sookie wasn't the only one that was exhausted recently. Hers just had more to do with the limit she had reached concerning mostly unreliable business partners. She didn't understand how the ebb and flow of their business partnership could be so steep with the glimmering hope that things were actually getting done by the both of them when Sookie would attend meetings and handle a few things on her own, only to be quickly brought diminished when meetings were skipped out on and sinks were shipped back to Canada because it couldn't get approved in time. Now there as an additional shipping fee to be mixed in with their already tight budget.

She turned on her heel and tried her best not to waddle towards the front door because that move didn't reflect her mood and she knew there was no such things as an angry waddle. "Fine. I have to go," she called over her shoulder.

Distantly, as she walked out the front door and onto Sookie's porch, she heard her ask about the sink again but she continued walking because she didn't have an immediate answer for the sink. That was a phone call for later when she would try to haggle the shipping price down or catch it before it was sent all the way back to Canada. She ignored Luke's questions as she neared his truck since she thought it best that he wait outside while she tried to talk to Sookie. She ignored him again when she veered away from the truck and tried to quicken her pace as she moved forward on the sidewalk and away from Sookie's house. She heard his boots stomping behind her and since her gait was slow because of the way her body changed, he had caught up to her.

"Where are you going?" he asked, falling in stride beside her since she wasn't about to stop walking.

"Home, I guess," Lorelai answered. She wasn't even sure of her destination, she had just started walking because she didn't need to argue with Sookie anymore.

"Well you're not going in the right direction, we live back that way," Luke replied, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb to the opposite direction of which they were walking.

"Fine," Lorelai gritted out through clenched teeth as a particularity hard kick came from her son. She turned around and started to walk in the direction in which Luke had pointed.

"Come on, get in the truck," Luke said as they approached. "I'll drive you home."

"I don't want to get in the truck," Lorelai replied. "I want to walk. I'm walking."

"Don't be stubborn now. Just get in the truck. We'll go home. Or somewhere else for lunch, it's late but we never did get the chance to eat."

"I'm not being stubborn," Lorelai snapped. She felt her belly tense again and rubbed her hand over the swell of her pregnant belly to ease it away. "I'm fine. I just argued with Sookie and I want to walk this off, so I'm walking."

This small movement didn't go unnoticed by Luke. He stepped closer to her and she came to a stop. "Are you okay?"

"It's nothing," Lorelai brushed it off since it went away as soon as it came on and was nothing compared to what she knew were real and true contractions. "Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it?" Luke repeated her words. "You're my wife and the mother of my child, I get to worry."

"But it's nothing," Lorelai argued.

"It's nothing?"

"Okay, you seriously have to stop turning everything I said into a question."

"It's not thing," Luke replied. "You don't look so good."

"Not what you thought earlier today when you wanted a little extra treat tonight."

"You know what I meant. You looked like you were in pain, are you? Is everything okay? Do we need to go to the hospital?"

"I'm not going to the hospital because nothing is wrong," Lorelai quickly informed him though her body decided to betray her as the tightening feeling returned.

She tried to tell herself that nothing was wrong because she honestly knew that nothing was wrong and these weren't real and true contractions that meant that labor was beginning and the baby was on his way but she didn't stop Luke as he guided her into the truck and announced that they definitely were going to the hospital even if she was against the idea. She may have piece of mind that nothing was going on but he wasn't as confident and needed a doctor to sign off before he would feel okay with not taking any action.

* * *

"I told you that nothing was wrong," Lorelai said later that night as they rested on the couch after a trip to the hospital that last a few hours. "I know my body and the same thing happened with Rory. That time it freaked me out but this can happen."

"And it was still good to have a doctor's word on that," Luke replied. His hand rubbed small circles on her belly as she wedged herself up under his arm and settled against his side. After everything that had managed to happen during their day and with Lorelai still in a funk, he tried to lighten the mood. "Besides, you're not the only one who knows it. I've read my books."

She chuckled and playfully swiped at him, her hand brushing against his flannel shirt. "Right, because that counts an experience."

From their position, he pulled her as close as he could. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I needed to know that you and him were okay."

"I know babe."

She fell silent as she buried her head into his chest and let herself be comforted by the feel of him around her. She tried to fight the tears that she now felt coming as everything that had happened over the past few days came washing over her. From not talking to Rory, to working overtime at the inn but trying to control herself, to the argument with Sookie, to everything that still needed to be done, and to the tiny baby growing inside of her. She hadn't admitted to him but earlier she was scared too. Scared that it might have been the real thing and that she was going into labor earlier than needed. Scared that her failing to slow down and reduce stress was going to be the reason her son was born earlier. Scared that this dream she had worked so hard for, that she had strived and sacrificed for was slipping away because she couldn't handle everything on her own and that seemed to be the way things were going.

Her restraint to cry wasn't as strong as she had hoped for because she could feel the tears forming and slipping down her face before soaking into the worn fabric of Luke's flannel. She sniffled and tried to stop the tears but as Luke started to stroke her back and ask her what was wrong, the tears remained.

"Lorelai, hey," Luke said softly as she lifted her head to look at him. He wiped away tears with the pads of his thumbs. "What's going on?"

"What if I can't do this?" Lorelai asked. She saw his confusion and continued on. "The inn. I'm trying to listen to what the doctor said and I'm trying not to work as hard because I know you worry but if I don't then no one else is going to do it. You can help with a few things and you have but this isn't your business, I have to make the decisions. And I'm making most of them by myself. And I argued with Sookie today and I can't remember the last time we argued like that."

"You can do this," Luke assured her, his voice strong and steady with the right amount of confidence that she needed this. "This is your dream, this is not going to slip away from you."

"This trying to open an inn while pregnant and having a pregnant business partner will never be on the list of brightest ideas. We already have a reservation, we can't push it back. We don't have the money to push it back. And I definitely cannot keep baby in for too much longer, he has to come out at some point," Lorelai ranted in a way that only she could. "I want this, I want this inn but I'm tired of doing all the work and arguing with Sookie didn't seem to help. I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted and I just want to see my daughter – or just speak to her, but I can't even do that. I miss her. I'm failing."

Luke pulled her back to him since she managed to create a little distance between themselves as she ranted. "You are not failing."

Her voice was muffled since she had once again sought comfort in his flannel covered chest but he heard her all the same. "I am."

"You're not," Luke said sternly. "You want this and things are bad right now but this isn't going to last." His voice softened and brought out a gentleness. "It's going to be okay. I'll do whatever I can to make sure of that."

She still sniffled but the tears had slowed down but not before she had completely soaked one side of his shirt. She apologized and promised to find a way to get the mascara that she was sure had stained his shirt. She wasn't sure how long she had remained in his arms, seeking all the comfort and love that he could provide, but soon she felt him nudging her and asking her if she was ready for bed.

"If you think you're getting lucky after tonight, you really need to sort out your priorities," Lorelai teased as she pulled away from him and sat upright on the couch.

"I meant just for sleeping, you must be tired after today."

"And I am. I'm very tired, but our interrupted lunch and hospital vending machine dinner did nothing for me, I'm starved."

"I offered to stop somewhere on the way home."

"I was just ready to get home, we have enough food here."

He stood up from the couch and was already making his way to the kitchen when he asked, "What do you want?"

She was going to answer his question but was stopped short when the familiar sound the front door opening was followed by an even familiar voice that had only really been weird in a robotic and detached way as of late.

"Mom?"

Lorelai was up from the couch quicker than she normally moved and met her daughter as soon as she entered the living room, "Rory?"

"I know it's been a long time since we've seen each other or really even talked but I was hoping that you haven't forgotten your only daughter," Rory teased because she couldn't avoid the opportunity for a joke. "I know I might be replaced once my little brother comes along but I hoped I had a little more time."

"You have about an hour."

Rory arched an eyebrow, "An hour?"

"An hour before mommy crashes into a not peaceful night of sleep because your baby brother is set to be the world's best soccer player with how often and hard he kicks," Lorelai informed her, wrapping her arm around her daughter's shoulder and heading towards the kitchen where Luke had scurried off to. "An hour in which we can eat whatever Luke is coming up with, I'm fine with leftovers."

"Leftovers are my favorite meal. Chinese?"

"Quite possibly." She hugged her daughter close to her. "Everything okay with you sweets? You sounded stressed on the phone."

"Some school stuff," Rory dismissed the issue in a way that explained she would talk, but right now she was fine with not talking. "I just wanted to come home tonight."

"I'm happy you did kid."

* * *

 **So Lorelai had to have some kind of breakdown at one point.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	25. Chapter 25

**As soon as I promise to not go so long without updates, my laptop breaks and leaves me without ways to update. But the issue is all fixed now and I'm back. This chapter is a little all over the place, just stick with me.**

 **Thanks for all the follows/reviews!**

* * *

Lorelai glided the needle through the fabric, pulling it taut on the other side and examining her work so far. Her face scrunched up into one of concentration as she noticed a few stitches that had gone askew and she delved into problem solving mode, pulling and nipping and stitching until her work was finished with only a minor cosmetic blemish that she swore was on purpose because it gave the pillow character. Her vision of The Dragonfly required character. She ran her hand over the multicolored and patterned fabric before it was set aside where it joined the growing mountain of throw pillows that was saving her money that she or Sookie quite frankly didn't even have in the first place. She slipped her glasses off her face and gingerly set them down on the end table before rubbing at her tired eyes. A small exclamation of pain caused her to open her eyes and avert her gaze to her partner in crime sitting on the couch next to her.

"Rory, honey, just stop."

"No, I'm helping," Rory insisted without looking up at her mother. She, too, was concentrating but it didn't really seem to be working despite her best efforts.

"This isn't helping, this is a hindrance."

Offended, Rory then looked up at her mother. "What a rude thing to say to your one and only daughter who is only trying to help her lovely and breathtaking mother."

She smiled at her daughter's attempt not only to flatter her but also the creative endeavor she was currently trying her hand at and simultaneously failing. "Flattery will get you nowhere my friend."

"That's not the saying."

"It is in this case."

"I can...ow damn it," Rory cursed when the needle pricked her finger again. She dropped the throw pillow into her lap and rubbed at the sore spot on the tip of her finger. "You're right. I suck at this."

Lorelai chuckled then plucked the throw pillow from her daughter's lap. "Well we can't all be genius seamstresses. That takes years of work, all post Gilmore economy, and a little dash of being Lorelai."

Rory squinted her eyes, confusion evident in her features. "I'm a Lorelai."

"Not this Lorelai," the elder Lorelai replied with a dramatic gesture to herself. "And really you're a Rory who just happens to have the name Lorelai."

"That you gave me."

"Exactly. I rest my case."

"I'm lost."

Lorelai held up her daughter's attempt at a throw pillow that had stuffing coming out of the barely sewn together seams and that was larger on one side than the other. A smirk pulled at the corner of her lips. "Clearly."

"That horse is dead, put the stick down."

"Just one more?" Lorelai asked.

"Dead, gone, done-zo, six feet under, perished, gone never to be seen again, and did I mention that it's dead?"

She feigned a pout that only lasted a matter of seconds and was replaced by a look of concern. "You're crabby."

"I'm not crabby," Rory replied in an argumentative tone.

"Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck," Lorelai mused to her daughter who had unceremoniously thrown herself back onto the couch cushions. She smiled when she noticed that Rory's position on the couch at the moment was similar to how she used to lay when she was little with her head almost in her mother's lap. There wasn't much room in her lap now, not with her pregnant belly in the way, but she still reached out and ran her hands through her daughter's hair and listened to her concerns.

Rory stared at no particular spot on the ceiling as she voiced how her past week at school had went. "I haven't had much sleep because I had papers due and last minute work for the paper that Doyle insisted upon and now next week exams begin and I've only had a little time to study because of all the other work so I'm now I'm behind my scheduled studying time. Far behind."

"And yet, you're here jacking up my throw pillows."

She groaned in response. "I made the trip home because Paris is manic and tried to lock me out of our room because she also needs to study but can't do it when I'm also in the room because apparently I turn the pages in my textbook a little too loud and that disturbs her."

"You knew rooming with Paris wasn't going to be the easiest of situations."

"I didn't pick my roommates, Paris thought it would best for us."

Her hands continued to gingerly run through her daughter's hair. "Then why don't you go study? You have a room here where you can lock yourself away and study your brains out. I haven't let your little unborn baby brother take over the room just yet. I'm saving that for when he's older and I can say that he's my favorite child."

Rory tilted her head back to look up at her mother. "That was my original plan."

"But?"

She sighed as she sat up, tucking her legs underneath as she turned to face her mother to finish her explanation. "I had every intention of studying when I came home. But then I came in here and you were working and you looked like you needed help so even though I can't sew, I tried to help. I thought maybe it was a hereditary thing."

"It's not."

"Clearly."

"Rory, sweetie, you don't need to help me. I have all the help I need. Your job right now is to be concerned about school."

"You have all the help you need?" Rory asked. "Sookie and Michel are helping out more now?"

"I have all the help I need," Lorelai confirmed with a nod of her head. "They have been extra helpful lately so I'm not as stressed. After that tiny little breakdown weeks ago, they have been at every meeting that has been scheduled, taking nearly daily visits to the inn, and accomplishing every task they've been assigned. Michel has even taken some of the things of my to-do list and added them to his. Though I suspect that has a little more to do with Luke threatening him."

"Luke threatened him?"

"Well I can't know for sure since Luke hasn't talked to me about it but Michel has made several observations about the angry lumberjack that I'm married to and if I really want him to be the father of my child," Lorelai replied. "As if I can change that fact now."

"He's just being Michel."

"I'm getting back at him by not telling him that the front desk was actually delivered a couple of weeks ago and is currently hiding out in the garage," Lorelai explained, a smug smile on her face. "There's a great relief I get from seeing him sitting on the floor surrounded by paperwork and complaining about how the hardwood floor isn't good for his suits."

Rory smiled at the image that her mother's words had conjured up. "So things with the inn are good now?"

"There's still a million and one things to do but at least we have beds, we're slowly decorating everything. Few people have been hired under Michel's strict standards that he is lowering, there's no longer eight desserts on the menu and Sookie is actually okay with that, we're still without doors, but we are almost all prepped for the test run."

"Sounds like a lot."

"Plenty to keep busy and enough to make everyone stress out while they tell me not to stress out because it's not good for the baby," Lorelai replied. "Things are good though."

"Once next week is over and my exams are all done, I'll be here to help with whatever you need for the test run," Rory promised. "And since I have no summer plans, I'll be here to help take care of my little brother too."

"Already such a good big sister."

"But I'm not changing any diapers," Rory said, her tone firm and definite.

"Just an okay big sister then," Lorelai teased. She waved her hands in her daughter's direction, shooing her away. "Now leave mommy be and make her worry that you're working yourself too hard by putting on a pot of coffee, locking yourself in your room and studying your brains out. I promise to sit here and be quiet."

Rory swung her legs off the couch and planted them firmly on the hardwood floor but made no move to get off the couch. "You know your promise to be quiet is a promise that you're going to break."

She couldn't help but smile at that. "At least you know me kid."

"It's been eighteen years, I've picked up a few things."

"Yes you have," she waved her hands in her daughter's direction again, shooing her way _again,_ "Now go study and make mommy proud by not failing this semester and becoming a college dropout. There's food in the fridge, some pie, and make some coffee because you'll need it to power through."

Rory knew where this was going. "I'm not giving you any coffee."

"One cup," Lorelai refuted.

"You've had a cup today, Luke said no more coffee for you. It's not good for baby."

"You and Luke have got to stop talking to one another."

"I have to talk about you to someone. This way, it's not a therapist. I'm saving money. You should be proud."

Lorelai pointed in the direction of her daughter's bedroom. "Go and study before I kick you out of your bedroom."

"I'm going."

As Rory finally moved fully off the couch and headed in the direction of the kitchen, Lorelai took a moment to readjust her position on the couch, being this pregnant and only a few weeks away from her due date had her feeling uncomfortable in almost any position. But with enough twisting and turning and fluffing of freshly made throw pillows, she found a spot that would at least be comfortable for the next few minutes before the twisting and turning and fluffing would rear it's ugly head and thus the cycle would continue until she decided to move off the couch all together. But for now, the couch was her spot to finish up the few odds and ends she was creating and sewing and saving money on by doing so, and she wasn't planning on moving anytime soon.

Until the doorbell rang.

Since she hadn't yet heard the door to her daughter's room shut and therefore didn't have to keep her vow of being quiet, at least in her opinion, she called out. "Rory."

The disembodied voice replied seconds later. "I'm not bringing you coffee. This pot is mine."

"Not that, although there's a few jokes I could make there, just remind me later." The doorbell rang again. "The doorbell, can you get that?"

With a freshly made cup of coffee in her hand, Rory re-entered the living room and headed for the front door all the while keeping the conversation with her mother going. "I thought you said I could study in peace."

"And you'll be able to, just need you to do this one little thing for me." She waited until she heard the door open and Rory start talking to someone before she asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me," the voice called back, though the question wasn't for her.

Lorelai placed the voice as being Sookie's and wondered why she even bothered knocking but her reason became apparent when Sookie walked into the living room carrying Davey in his carseat with one arm while the other arm barely held onto a bag that was stuffed to the brim, with what Lorelai wasn't exactly sure.

"I'm a little afraid to ask what you used to ring the doorbell with," Lorelai said as Rory swooped in behind Sookie and took the bag out of her arms and placed it down on the coffee table before it had the chance to spill all over the floor. Sookie followed behind Rory's move and placed Davey's carseat down onto the floor.

"Well I tried to do a little kick move," Sookie began to explain and demonstrate, careful of the sleeping baby at her feet, "But I'm short and the doorbell was up to high, plus kicking might wake up Davey who just fell asleep on the drive over here so then I was going to use my head, but that didn't work out. Finally I nudged it with my elbow." She drew in a breath. "I was outside for ten minutes."

Lorelai chuckled as her friend tried to catch her breath. "Sookie, you could've called first so I knew you were coming over. That way you didn't have to resort to acrobatics to ring a doorbell."

"We had a meeting today, at least I thought we did," Sookie answered, "Did we not?"

Did we?" Lorelai asked, racking her brain to remember if they did have a meeting today. She came up with nothing. Between her now weekly doctor's appointments and how often their meetings changed either times or locations, it was hard to keep track.

"Or maybe it was tomorrow," Sookie pondered, equally confused. "I can always come back tomorrow."

Lorelai shook her head and urged her friend over to the couch, squishing around to make sure there was room. "No, sit, sit. We can talk now. You came all the way over here, performed a circus act just to ring the doorbell, we'll discuss something and fill Michel in later. I need to talk with him about hiring people anyways."

"Okay, hate to break this up," Rory interrupted, causing both the women to look up at her, "But I need to know if the promise of being quiet remains or if I need to pick another place to study for today. I can go to Jess' apartment."

"And face being questioned by Liz and TJ again?" Lorelai asked.

The duo had crashed into town days earlier, informing Luke of their impending marriage that was going to take place in Stars Hollow and recruiting his help with the festivities though they had sworn at the very beginning that absolutely everything was taken care of. Absolutely everything meaning that they had agreed to get married and had the appropriate attire. He begrudgingly agreed and saved all his ranting about the guy his sister had chosen until he was home and Lorelai was more than willing to lend an ear and a few opinions of her own.

"To my room it is," Rory declared, turning on her heel and heading in that direction.

"Thought so."

"Ooh wait a minute popcorn," Sookie called after Rory. She plucked an item from the top of the bag and threw it in the younger girl's direction. When Rory picked them up after failing to catch them the first time, Sookie explained, "They're cookies. Not your favorite but a new recipe I'm trying out, let me know what you think."

"Thanks Sookie," Rory smiled, "And as for my studying..." she said, casting a glance at her mother.

"We'll be quiet," Lorelai promised again. "Now go, because that kicking you out of your bedroom was a real threat."

"I'm going."

She meant it this time and she went, her departure ended with the sound of her bedroom door closing. Back in the living room, Sookie joined Lorelai on the couch after moving Davey closer to her to keep a better eye on him though he was peacefully snoozing away without a care in the world. When prompted by Lorelai, Sookie grabbed the bag she had brought in off the table and began to lay out all the goodies. All of which were various sampling sizes of food, ranging from what she described as appetizers to desserts, and snacks that were created for no other reason than wanting to try out a new recipe.

"Not that I don't appreciate all the food, and it all smells amazing by the way, but what exactly is all of this for?" Lorelai asked, already reaching for a tart that had a small cutout of a dragonfly on top.

"The test run," Sookie answered. "I know, I know, I promised I had the menu already and I cut the desserts down by two, but last night I had a dream about a change to the pork chops recipe I was telling you about and I just had to try it out. But that was a dangerous road and I may have created an entirely different menu," she said sheepishly.

Lorelai let out a sigh that was fraught with tension. A completely new menu was not what they needed. "Sookie."

"I knew you were going to say that."

"Because it's a big change, way too close to when we open," Lorelai argued. "You said you were set on the menu."

"And I was when you asked me."

"You were confident in the menu."

"But this one is even better," Sookie jumped in excitedly. "And I brought a sampling of every course for you to taste and tell me if you think it is Dragonfly worthy."

"You know I love everything you make Sookie."

"Then this is going to knock your socks off." Her eyes drifted down to her Lorelai's bare feet. "You're not wearing socks but you know what I mean."

"This is the last menu change," Lorelai said firmly, her expression stern to show that she meant business. "No more changes to the menu. At least not until we have been open for at least six months. We'll discuss it then."

"I can live with that," Sookie said after a beat.

"And you have to fire two of the kitchen staff, we simply don't have the budget for all of them."

Sookie sighed dreamily, "They're all so great, so talented, so helpful..."

"Sookie."

"Two are so getting canned."

Lorelai clapped her hands together and smiled triumphantly. "Good. Now what do you have for me?"

As prompted, Sookie began to explain in great detail the complexities of the new menu and how it was better suited than the one she had originally set in place for the test run and the opening of The Dragonfly. As the food was tasted and Sookie was prevented from even making the smallest changes to the menu, logistics were discussed for the upcoming test run that was only two weeks away followed by the official grand opening of The Dragonfly just a week and a half later. With the promise that this latest menu was permanent, there wasn't much to decide for the test run besides deciding who to invite and which rooms to place them in. But since they didn't want to leave Michel out of their impromptu meeting, the rooming issue was swept to the side for now and secretly added to Michel's to-do list.

* * *

Exiting the diner with Luke right behind her, Lorelai couldn't help but giggle. Then when he turned towards her, all red-faced, fifteen different shades to be exact, she was sent into a whole other wave of hysterics. Over the past week, she had divided her time between worrying about her daughter trying to complete her final exams, saving Luke from time in prison by not letting him kill his future brother-in-law, and prepping the Dragonfly for test run that was supposed to happened next weekend. But the scene that had unfolded before her eyes mere seconds ago made up for that busy time.

"Why are you laughing?" Luke questioned, still enraged as to the scene that was still happening in his diner. He was very careful not to look. "This isn't funny. There is a man gyrating in there!"

His outburst got the attention of a few passerbys and did nothing to quell her laughter. She could feel her son kicking through the vibrations of her laughter but she avoided holding onto her belly because that conjured up some images of Santa and she was trying not to compare herself to the jolly man. When Luke didn't look like he was going to calm down and turned a sixteenth shade of red, her laughter began to subside and she wiped at the tears in the corners of her eyes as she leaned into him to steady herself.

"You were oblivious," Lorelai pointed out, beaming up at him. "You were still confused when he said he had a package," she waggled her eyebrows for emphasis on the last word. "You thought he was real delivery man."

"I didn't think he was a real delivery man," Luke defended himself. He blew out an angry huff of air. "I can't have a man gyrating and removing his clothes in my diner."

She gave a nod of her head. "Right, like we've never done anything remotely worth taking our clothes off in the diner."

"That doesn't count. That was after I closed up," Luke said, recounting the time, or two, she was talking about. Great memories that didn't even belong in the same sentence as this one. "This is the middle of the day, we're still open."

"Well they'll get dinner and a show, more of a show really since all your employees scattered when the boombox came out," Lorelai replied. Noticing the he was still frustrated, she started to caress his arm, moving her hand in small circles across the soft worn flannel he insisted on wearing for any season. "Think of it this way. Imagine the look on Taylor's face if he looks through that big fancy window he installed between your diner and his ice cream shop and sees Carrie stuffing a dollar bill into the stripper's thong. His head will explode."

"I never did give her the ones she wanted."

"Okay, then stuffing a twenty dollar bill down the front of his underwear because she is really enjoying the show." When she felt him relax under his touch, she decided to continue on. "And just think about the fact that the wedding is tomorrow so Liz and TJ will go on their honeymoon and be out of your hair for who knows how long."

"He's wearing tights to the wedding."

Lorelai let her eyes roam appreciatively over his body. "You know..."

"Not happening," Luke cut her off gruffly.

"Good. I love you in a suit." She accepted the arm that he wrapped around her waist as they moved away from the diner and down the sidewalk to where she had parked. "And to get your mind even further off the stripper in your diner..."

"Doesn't help if you keep mentioning it."

"We have a free Friday night since Mom canceled dinner and as your wife, I can get you out of going to TJ's bachelor party," Lorelai said. "I promise that tonight will be free of work so it will be just you, me, and the baby I'm incubating."

"Your parents are dating each other, while they're married, explain that concept to me."

"First, Hell froze over because my mom actually took my advice. And then it thawed and froze over again when she told me she took my advice by talking to my dad, and he agreed to take her out on more dates to show that he does appreciate her."

"But they're married and they're dating," Luke stated again, the concept refused to stick with him.

Lorelai threw her hands up in the air. "I know as much as you. I stopped asking questions when Dad mentioned how many times they reconciled."

"Don't remind me." Without thinking about it, Luke had guided her to the passenger side door but she didn't seem to care. "Did you want me to come by the inn now for the tour?"

"What with men gyrating and taking their clothes off in your diner, I think you would be missing out if you went with me for a measly tour of an inn with no door for it's rooms," Lorelai replied.

He opened up the passenger side door and took her hands in his to help her in. "Get in."

"Demanding. I like it."

Luke waited until she was in the car before the next words came out of his mouth, "Wait, still no doors?"

She simply gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Our guests are going to get to know each other uncomfortably well."

"I'll talk to Tom."

She smiled. "My hero."

* * *

Lorelai ran her hands down the sides of her dress and smoothed the silky material that was stretched tight across her pregnant belly. "I look like a beached whale," she complained as she tried to decide whether turning side-to-side or facing herself head on in the mirror was the best idea. Both turned out to be a bad idea.

At this stage in her pregnancy, being just a few weeks away from her due date, she had been reluctant to buy any new clothes since she had enough maternity items and at this point they wouldn't be worn for long. But she had a wedding to attend and an inn to open and wanted something more spectacular, outfits that were worthy of those occasions. Though now as she stood in front of the mirror she had started to doubt this dress. A week ago she loved it. Now it could burn in a fire and she wouldn't care.

"You are not a beached whale."

"That's not what I said. I said I look like a beached whale," Lorelai repeated herself as she locked eyes in the mirror with Luke as he came up behind her. "Just look at me."

"I am." Luke wrapped his arms around her from behind and came to rest on top of hers that had stopped on her belly. "I'm looking at you and you're beautiful."

The light pink floral dress enhanced her pregnant figure, showcasing her very rounded baby bump before cascading down with fabric that flowed with her every movement. The dress came up to tie around her neck, showing off the ample cleavage that had been a part of the pregnancy package.

She leaned back into his embrace. "Flattery will get you everywhere my friend." A smirk tugged at the corners of her lips when his hands moved from her belly and slowly inched ever higher. "Okay, not everywhere." She turned around in his arms to face him. "Those are off limits, no fun for you for a little while."

"So I've been told."

"You don't listen very well."

He brought his hand up and cupped the side of her face, bending his head down he captured her lips in a soft kiss. "You're beautiful."

"And you are dashingly handsome in this suit," Lorelai lovingly replied. "We make a damn fine couple. "Wanna have a baby with me?" She asked then smiled coyly. "Oh wait."

"Crazy lady," Luke mumbled against her lips when he pulled her into another kiss.

She eased out of his arms and padded out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom where she rested on the edge of the bed and slipped on her pink summer sandals in lieu of the pink heels that she really wanted to wear. When Luke offered, she gladly accepted his outstretched hands as he helped her up from the bed and led her out of the bathroom. Before leaving she made sure to grab the crown of flowers that she had crafted to seamlessly blend in with the Ren Faire crowd that was the main base for his sister's wedding crowd. Since the idea of wearing an actual costume had been vetoed and hard to come across at the last minute this was as fruity as she was going to get, as Luke would say.

Later that night, after laughter had been stifled throughout most of the wedding ceremony and the vows had brought a tear to Lorelai's eye and were at the caliber then even Luke had to admit that it wasn't funny and rather sweet, the couple sat among the Ren Faire crowd while the bride and groom made the rounds. Lorelai watched from afar as Rory and Jess had been cornered by a few of Liz's friends and though she could go rescue them, she chose to hang back and let them tough it out for themselves. Besides she had grown tired after a long afternoon of celebrating the wedding of her sister-in-law.

"You okay?"

Lorelai turned her head at the sound of Luke's voice and gave a nod of her head. "I'm fine babe."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked. "If you're ready to go home, we can go home. Liz won't mind if we dip out early. It'll save me from listening to TJ offer to babysit our son."

"That's not happening."

"I've told him that." He ran a hand along her back and leaned in closer to her. "You look tired. If you're tired, we can leave."

She sighed and welcomed the feeling of him rubbing her back. "I'm going to ignore that slight."

"It wasn't a slight, just an observation."

"We agreed that today was to celebrate the wedding, to relax especially with everything going on with the inn," Lorelai reminded him. "I want to stay just a little longer. Besides we haven't even danced yet. I want to dance."

"As long as you're not spazzy."

They laughed together before their attention was directed towards the dance floor where the bride and groom shared their first dance. She lost herself in the memories of her wedding and their first dance as TJ and Liz moved easily across the dance floor as the lilting song played out across the dance square. She didn't even get the chance to turn to Luke as Kirk announced that any other couples were now allowed to join the dance floor if they wished. Instead Luke was already up and out of his chair and standing in front of her chair, extending his hand for a dance.

She swayed with him as he wrapped an arm around his waist and took her hand in his while he led her across the dance floor with a graceful ease. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her daughter moving more clumsily across the dance floor while Jess led her just as clumsily but laughing all the while. Lorelai laid her head down on Luke's shoulder, loving the way they fit together and how he held her carefully while they danced. Tired as she may have been, she relished in the dance and even offered to go one round more when Luke tried to move her off the dance floor. For now, she was dancing and everything with the inn was the furthest thing from her mind

* * *

 **As always, reviews are appreciated!**


	26. Chapter 26

**No lame excuses will suffice as to why I haven't posted for this story in forever. Just hope that maybe you're diving back in. Enjoy!**

* * *

Lorelai tossed and turned, more figuratively than anything, as her thoughts pinged back and forth in her mind like a caffeine fueled game of pong. She willed her mind to just shut off so she could catch at least a few hours of sleep but that seemed like a losing battle. It had been an hour since she made the deal to avoid even glancing in the direction of her alarm clock since the glaring red numbers only served to mock her as she literally watched her precious hours of sleep slipping away. After a few minutes, she finally settled on her side and stared blankly at the wall in front of her.

The Dragonfly was due for it's test run in a few hours and with everything that was set for tomorrow, there was no way that sleep would come easy. Despite Luke's best efforts, they were still without doors though Tom did promise that they would be there before the guests could even get a chance to settle in. That or everyone would just have to get very friendly with one another. On top of not having doors and Sookie accidentally having too many kitchen staff, the entire idea of even going through a test run for her very own inn was overwhelming. There was the very real chance that the Dragonfly could just crash and burn.

That thought was even to finally get her out of bed. If she wasn't going to sleep, she could get something done around the house. Before she left their bedroom, she stole a glance over her shoulder at Luke who was still deep asleep despite all her figurative tossing and turning. She only felt the slightest pang of jealousy for how carefree he seemed in his sleep before she turned and left the room.

In the nursery, she picked up on one of her tasks from earlier and began to pack and sort the essentials and a few extras into a diaper bag. The creeping reality that soon their baby boy would be here was enough to make her realize that a packed bag stowed away for later use would come in handy whenever she went into labor. Instead of like when she went into labor with Rory and only showed up to the hospital in the outfit she was wearing and her walkman.

She had nearly finished her packing away of baby items when she felt someone walk up behind her.

"What are you doing up?"

She zipped the bag close before she turned to face him. "Couldn't sleep. You?"

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Heard someone moving around, thought Rory was making mac n' cheese again."

She chuckled at the memory of just a few nights ago. "You're not going to lock me in this room, are you?"

"That depends on when you plan on coming back to bed."

"What's the point? I'm not going to sleep anytime soon so instead of just laying in bed and staring at the wall, I can get something done. There's plenty to do."

He brushed a curl out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "Want to tell me what's going on?"

She blew out a breath and then prompted for him to follow as she made her way across the room to the rocking chair. While she spoke, she watched as he knelt down in front of her with his hand coming to rest on her knee. "The test run is tomorrow. Or today, really."

His smile was lazy and sleep but still overwhelmingly proud. "I know."

A pat on her knee was a little extra assurance.

"I don't think I'm ready."

He nearly scoffed at the very idea. "Of course you are. You know that you are."

"We still don't have doors," Lorelai pointed out. "Sookie can't cut her kitchen staff down, Michel is insisting that his dogs are children, we invited Kirk and you know that's always a recipe for disaster." A gasp escaped her lips. "We're going to need band-aids, between Sookie and Kirk, we'll need to invest in band-aids."

"I'll buy some before the official test run, before the guests get there."

Her eyes cast downward at her lap – well the pregnant belly that replaced her lap – before she met Luke's gaze again. "But what if I can't do this? Being in charge at the Independence Inn was one thing, it was still Mia's. I helped run things. This is just mine and Sookie's, if it fails, it's all on me."

"It's not going to fail," Luke spoke softly.

"You don't know that."

"I do know that. And I already told you that I know, and I've already told you that I told you that I know that," he replied. "I'm not going to lie to you, opening a new business isn't always easy. It's a lot of work. But if anyone can do it, I know that you can."

"You really think so?"

"I do think so. As long as you can get through the test run without hurting yourself like I did when I first opened the diner, I'll consider it a success."

"I'm just glad that you didn't add Sookie into that."

"Her accidentally hurting herself is a given. I figured I'd at least give you a chance."

She smiled. "And I thank you for that."

He stretched himself up and held his hands out to her. "Ready to go back to bed?"

She placed her hands in his and accepted his offer to help her up. "Will you rub my back until I go back to sleep? It's hurting again."

He gave a nod of his head. "Of course." He then pressed a kiss to her head and wrapped an arm around her waist as he gently began to guide her out of the room. "Now come on, back to bed. Big day tomorrow."

"Big day in just a few hours," Lorelai reminded him.

"Either way, you need your rest."

Back in their bedroom, she kissed him before she got comfortable on her side of the bed and waited for him to climb in beside her. Soon she felt his strong hands take up residence on her lower back as they gently began to knead away at the pain residing there. She would have preferred for stronger pressure but he had some idea that he could hurt her or the baby if he pressed too hard so she took whatever she could get. Soon after, she yawned and could feel her eyes getting heavy with sleep again.

* * *

Early the next afternoon, the Dragonfly Inn lobby buzzed with excitement. Early the next morning, Sookie was sequestered away in the kitchen busy with food and meal prep and trying to decide which of the staff was going to get the boot because that decision still hadn't been made while Michel was busy following their cleaning staff from room to room making sure all the rooms were in tip-top shape even if they were still without the attached doors. Meanwhile Lorelai manned the front desk from the couch that sat across from the front desk because sitting was much more comfortable than standing. Plus the modern and supposedly ergonomic stool Michel had picked out for behind the front desk was nothing that she would ever choose to sit in. Beside her on the couch lay checklists for all the guests that had been invited to attend the test run and an itinerary for a few activities planned for the duration of their stay.

She looked up from the list in her hands and across the room at Rory who was behind the front desk making sure that the room keys were sorted out properly. "Everything there kid?"

Rory turned to her mother and nodded her head, "Yep. I even labeled sticky notes with names of everyone that will be here and stuck them to the corresponding keys so it's easier to remember who is staying in what room."

"You know how Michel feels about people using his sticky notes, you're going to throw his whole process out of wack," Lorelai replied.

"That was the plan."

"I've taught you well."

Lorelai watched as her daughter rounded the front desk and began to walk towards the couch that she occupied. She cleared the papers out of the way and pulled them into her lap just before Rory plopped down on the couch next to her.

"When is everyone supposed to arrive?" Rory asked.

"Not too much longer. There were murmurings that since we weren't offering any form of lunch today that everyone invited was meeting up at the diner for lunch before they all rode over her together," Lorelai answered. "And by murmurings I mean Luke called earlier and confirmed that's what was happening and that he was going to try and sneak out before everyone else to come over here."

Rory gave a nod her head. "Well I'm here to help with whatever you need. You name it and I'll do it. And when Jess gets here, I'll put him to work too. Consider us your employees for the day."

"You and Luke both know that I'm not incompetent, right?" Lorelai inquired. "I appreciate all the offers of help because we really can use all that we can get, but I can still work."

"And no one is saying that you can't," Rory replied. "I'm just offering. I'm out of school for the summer and need to keep busy, so I'm here to help. Plus you're the one that said you weren't feeling that great today."

"Because I barely got any sleep and your baby brother likes to kick as hard as he can, so I'm allowed to feel a little unwell," Lorelai said. "But thank you."

Rory smiled. "Anytime mom." When her mother gave an appreciative nod and then turned her head back to the papers in hand, she noticed a glint of silver of what looked like new earrings. "Are those new?"

Confused for just a moment but quickly remembering exactly what her daughter was talking about, her hand reached up and grazed over the small dragonfly pendant. "Oh yeah. Luke gave them to me this morning as a good luck charm."

"They're beautiful."

"The man can pick out jewelry," Lorelai commented. "Have you gotten comfortable on this couch or does your offer of help still stand?"

"Like I said before, you name it and I'll do it."

"Well we accidentally hired too many people to work in the kitchen, Sookie figured that at least two would quit but they're still hanging on. She promised to can two of them but that still hasn't happened," Lorelai explained. "You think that you give some insight on who she should fire, pick out the weakest links?"

Rory moved up from off the couch. "I'll see what I can do. Pick out the weak ones. Or pick out the ones that cannot handle an emergency situation in which Sookie hurts one of them or hurts herself."

"Introduce Sookie to the pro-con list," Lorelai called after her already fleeting daughter who gave her a thumbs up in response.

As soon as Rory exited the front lobby and headed for the kitchen, Michel made a very brief appearance mumbling under his breath about incompetent cleaning staff before disappearing out the front door since part of his job duties were to focus on the guests that should be arriving any minute now. The lack of his presence or anyone's presence really have Lorelai a very brief moment of quietness before the hustle and bustle that was sure to accompany these next few days.

Since she was all alone and only had her thoughts to focus on, it made the nagging pain in her back more obvious. A very early morning massage from Luke had helped but it ultimately woke her up again a little while before she actually wanted to get her day started. She tried to focus on anything but the fact that her back was hurting but even pressing her hand to her lower back offered no relief. Instead she changed her position on the couch by leaning back against a few of the handmade throw pillows that decorated the lobby.

Her mood was lifted by the sight of a flannel covered man carrying a bouquet of daisies that happened to step through the front door at that exact moment. She lifted herself from the couch and made her way over to him.

"And who would those be for?"

"I thought Michel deserved a little something nice on such a big day, is he around?"

"Ha-ha," Lorelai deadpanned. When he passed the bouquet to her, she lifted them to her nose and sniffed. "They're beautiful."

"They're a little congratulations, you deserve it."

"I love them, thank you."

Luke gave a nod his head. "You're welcome." He leaned in as if the next thing he said was going to be a secret. "And I have one more thing for you."

"Let's see, I already got good luck earrings and congratulations flowers, what else could there be?"

"Just be patient," Luke told her before he turned his back to her and just like Michel did before, disappeared out the front door.

Unlike Michel's disappearance, Luke was only gone for a matter of seconds before he reappeared with someone Lorelai placed as one of the men on Tom's crew and a wooden door emblazoned with a golden number seven.

Her smile grew brighter. "You brought my doors."

"Tom brought the doors, I'm helping to set them up before everyone gets here."

"Either way, thank you," Lorelai said excitedly. She pressed a kiss to his cheek before she turned to the man whose name she couldn't quite remember and thanked him too, just without a cheek kiss. After, she turned to the fleet of men that had assembled in the lobby, all with doors and corresponding numbers, "Alright, guests are arriving soon so we need doors attached so people don't have to get too friendly with one another. Just up the stairs and everything else should be self-explanatory."

Luke vowed to take the lead on the door attachment project just as Michel appeared briefly once again and announced that the guests were on their way and should be arriving in a matter of seconds. As Luke lead the gathering of men and doors up the stairs, Lorelai called out to Rory and Sookie that it was officially time to begin. The flowers were deposited on the front desk, though she did make a mental note to find a vase later, before she led her group outside.

Standing out on the front porch of the Dragonfly surrounded by close business partners and best friends, she watched as a white, uncovered cart emerged from a small cloud of dirt and dust carrying those she cared enough for to invite. With a deep breath and supportive squeeze of her hand from Rory, she took the first step in greeting those to the test run weekend of The Dragonfly.

* * *

Hours later, Lorelai was beginning to feel the effects of only a few hours sleep but the excitement about the test run was still very much alive and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. She watched sleepily from the doorway as everyone enjoyed what was the first course in a list of courses that Sookie had introduced at length for the very first dinner was their very own inn career. The mingling was going well, though it should since everyone already knew one another, and Kirk appeared to be having a secret conversation with Luke. Her parents even seemed to be somewhat fitting in as they were stuck listening to one of Miss Patty's stories.

As the first course was cleared away and the second was brought out, Lorelai slipped away into the kitchen to check in on things. Not necessarily feeling hungry despite how amazing everything looked and smelled, she only picked at a plate that Sookie had sat aside for her.

"How's everything going out there?" Sookie asked, the excitement evident in her voice as she began to put finishing touches on desserts that would go out as the final course.

"Everyone loves your food," Lorelai reassured her best friend. "I've even heard talks of them trying to schedule a few reservations once the inn actually opens just so they can have more of your dishes."

"Oh, yay," Sookie squealed. "I can't believe this is actually happening."

"I know," Lorelai replied, her voice sounding much less excited than her counterparts.

Sookie quickly picked up on that. "Everything okay, hun?" She moved away from the desserts and took note of the full plate of food that still sat on the counter. "You barely touched your food."

Lorelai managed to put a smile on her face. "I'm good Sookie, just tired that's all. But this," she took a forkful of the salad that was spread across her plate, "This is amazing, and that's not even the pregnancy cravings talking."

"Thank you!" Sookie basked in her friend's praise of the first course. She quickly came back down to Earth, "But you know if you want to you can sneak up to your room upstairs if you need a few minutes to yourself. Maybe catch a quick little nap."

"I'm fine Sookie," Lorelai quickly replied.

She stayed in the kitchen long enough for the second course to be cleared from the dining room and for the third course to make it's way out. She ignored all talks from Sookie of how it was really okay if she wanted to go rest, that everything was going smoothly, and even though she would be missed they could afford for her to go take a small break if she needed to. Instead, she continued to pick at her plate of food until Luke had finally discovered that she was nowhere around and made his way into the kitchen.

"Hiding out in here?" Luke asked as he made his way over to Lorelai.

"Just snacking," Lorelai answered. "Thought I could hang out in here, at least while everyone eats. I'll make the rounds soon. How's everything going out there?"

"They're wondering where you are," Luke replied. "But they're all having a good time. But since you didn't offer any, Taylor is passing out comment cards to everyone and asking them to be honest."

"Handle that for me, would you?"

"It's already handled."

"Thank you." She had tried to hide it but the pain in her back was evident as she winced and steadied herself with the counter as one hand tried to relieve the pain.

Luke was immediately by her side. "What's wrong?"

She forced a smile on her face, "Nothing's wrong, just your child delivering some very hard kicks." At least that's what she was telling herself it was. "I'm okay. Just my back again."

"Maybe you should go rest. There's still what, two courses?" Luke asked, he looked over at Sookie who was busy at the stove who gave him a nod of her head as confirmation. "You can go upstairs and rest while the rest of the courses go out. I'll bring some food up to you if you want."

"What I want is for everyone to stop assuming that I'm not okay, it's just been a long day and I'm a little tired," Lorelai snapped. "It's completely normal. I'm fine."

"But you're also pregnant, and if it's your back," Luke started to say but was interrupted.

"I said I'm fine." She looked around at the various kitchen staff that looked shell-shocked from her sudden outburst but they quickly went back to work when her stare became unwavering. It was only a few seconds but felt longer before she spoke up again, "You know what, I think I am going to rest."

"I'll walk up with you," Luke offered.

"By myself," Lorelai cut in.

She collected herself before walking out the kitchen door and into the dining room, not letting anyone know what had transpired in the kitchen as she did a few check-ins with people that stopped her before quickly and quietly grabbing her room key before disappearing up the stairs when she was absolutely sure that no one was watching.

* * *

When she finally made her way back downstairs, dinner was over and guests were still scattered throughout the dining room and the lobby. The board games and card games had been broken out while people had divided into their own little groups. She passed by Rory and Jess in the lobby who were looking over the various bookshelves and discovering that some of them were books that she had pilfered from Rory's collection so it appeared fuller. She found Luke seated around a table with Miss Patty and Babette as his poker rivals.

She walked up behind him and braced her arms on his shoulders. "How's everything going over here?"

"We're beating the pants off of him," Babette rasped.

"I only wish she meant that literally," Miss Patty purred with a downward gaze at Luke. "He declined our offer to play strip poker."

She shared an uncomfortable look with Luke. "Well ladies if you'll excuse us, I need to borrow my husband for a minute."

"Just bring him back," Miss Patty practically demanded as Luke got up from the chair and got away in just enough time that he avoided her grabby hands.

"Thought I would get you out of there," Lorelai whispered while she all but pulled Luke away from the table and guided him through the dining room, through the lobby, and out onto the porch.

He thanked her as they sat down on the bench she had installed on the porch and she took the time to lean against Luke as they enjoyed the crisp summer night air. His arm wrapped around her and she sighed in relief as the pain in her back let up for a few minutes. His hand stroked over her belly and she mirrored his movements with her own hand. They sat in silence until she remembered something she witnessed earlier that evening.

"What were you talking with Kirk about?"

Luke shook his head. "You don't even want to know."

"Tell me later," she requested. "A bedtime story?"

"A little disturbing that you want a story about Kirk to be a bedtime story."

"I think it will keep any potential nightmares at bay."

He chuckled and pulled her closer to him. "You okay?"

"Luke..." Lorelai whined.

"I know you're tired of that question..."

"It's the only question that I've been asked today."

"Only because people care about you."

With her head on his shoulder, she leaned back to look up at him. "I got a little bit of rest, that helped. My back still hurts but there's really nothing that we can do about that."

"I'm just watching out for you, and him."

"I know." She leaned up and captured his lips with hers. "And we are grateful."

She was happy to continue the kiss, to sit outside beside Luke while everyone continued on with the test run inside, (she had been there for the most important parts and now everyone was just winding down for bed) but it seemed that her unwell feeling all day was finally coming to a head. She clutched at her pregnant belly as she felt a tightening that brought back memories that only seemed like yesterday though it had been years, and pulled back from Luke.

She had experienced a false alarm before and briefly wondered if this was in the same vein because she was still a couple of weeks away from her due date. But her answer came for her and for Luke at the same time.

"Is that..." Luke trailed off but Lorelai was quick to jump in with a nod of her head.

"I think my water broke."

* * *

 **I hope you're still sticking around and if you are and don't hate me too much then please leave a little review.**

 **They are always greatly appreciated.**


	27. Chapter 27

**If you're still here and reading I know you're probably thinking that I've been away forever - and I have- and that really this update should be a lot more than it is. But I'm just bringing back this small update to hopefully ease back into more frequent updates. Which I know I say all the time too. I love writing but there's a lot going on where I simply can't write. I want to and the story is there, it's just with I get into a place where I can't write. But hopefully you're still here and reading. At least one person.**

 **I'm going to leave a little more of an author's note at the bottom.**

* * *

The sun was just beginning to rise; the rays of lights peaking through the slants in the curtains as the hustle and bustle began to slow down in the hospital room. Laid back on the bed, Lorelai held the newborn close to her chest, trading glances between her baby and her doting husband that managed to climb into the bed beside her. Not that it took a lot of convincing once they were left alone with their new addition. Her eyes drifted shut for a mere moment when he brushed a few sweaty tendrils of her hair back and pressed a kiss to her equally sweaty forehead.

"He's perfect, isn't he?" she whispered, eyes drifting up to meet her husband's gaze.

Luke couldn't help but smile at Lorelai holding his child. Their child. "Yes he is."

They shared a kiss before she gently placed the baby on his chest, adjusting the blanket he was wrapped in when it started to come loose. His strong arms cradled the baby close while she laid her head on his shoulder the best way she could in the cramped hospital bed. Labor had taken hours and it was a whirlwind of nurses and doctors and her parents fighting the hospital staff to make sure she had not only a private room but the best room the hospital could offer. After all, they were donors to the hospital. But now, the doctor had left along with the nurses to give the new parents a few minutes alone with their baby.

"Should we invite the others in yet?" Lorelai asked. Rory would be the first. She had excused her daughter earlier when she was understandably freaking out.

Tiny fingers wrapped around a more rough and calloused finger giving him his answer. "Just a few more minutes."

"A few more minutes," she agreed.

She yawned, lifting her head long enough to place a kiss on his flannel-clad shoulder. A sentimental smile crossed her face as she watched him watching their newborn son gaze around as newborns did. Having him in the delivery room made a world of difference than being with just the nurses and doctor like what happened when Rory was born. She had his support, encouragement, and hand holding through everything. Not that she ever doubted he would be any less than one hundred percent there for her.

As soon as she made the mention that she thought her water broke, he jumped into action. Hurrying to find Rory and tell her of the latest happenings, he managed to get their car keys and inform Sookie, who had been downstairs to check on her bread for in the morning, that they were on the way to the hospital so she and Michel were in charge. Which, in hindsight, saying Michel was in charge of a small part of the population of Stars Hollow and their newly renovated inn may have not been the best choice. But really that was the furthest thing from her mind.

"Hey baby boy," she cooed in the voice specially reserved for talking to babies. She carefully ran her fingers over the wispy yet dark hair that adorned his head that had yet to be covered up by a hat. "I think he looks like you."

Luke spoke softly as a set of wide eyes focused on him. "He has your eyes."

She grinned, leaning more into Luke with one of her hands resting on the back of their newborn son. "I always knew we would make cute babies."

His chest vibrated with a chuckle, the sound and feel seemingly lulling the baby to sleep as his eyes started to drift close. Her hand continued to rub little circles along the newborn's back, a practice that she learned when Rory was still a baby and could be difficult to get to sleep. She ran her finger softly over the delicate skin of their baby, tracing the tiny features etched onto freshly scrubbed pink skin. She took just a moment to admire the soothing smell that all babies had.

"I think we're wearing him out," Lorelai whispered.

Luke nodded his head in agreement. "He's been through a lot today."

She tried to fight off another yawn but this one won out. "You're telling me." A sleepy smile crossed her face. "Big day today."

"Big day," he echoed, his tone reminiscent of hers. His lips drifted across hers, barely making a contact before he rested his forehead against hers. "I'm proud of you."

She had nothing to say, choosing instead to relish in this moment in silence. Her heart had swelled with his words, not only in their meaning of bringing their child into the world, but the business she had created that was now hopefully running as planned. No one had ever really said those words to her before. She met his lips again, lingering longer than he did mere seconds ago.

Lorelai pulled back slightly from him. "I think we should introduce him to the world."

"Might be a little too early for everything, we can start with Rory," Luke replied.

"She's waited long enough. She first asked about a baby sister when she was five," she told him. "She'll just have to deal with having a baby brother."

Luke softly placed a kiss to his son's head before handing him back over to Lorelai. The slight jostling doing nothing to wake the sleeping baby. He moved out of the bed, careful not to disturb Lorelai in any way, before he crossed the room and was out the door.

Now alone, Lorelai snuggled the baby close to her chest. "We've been waiting for you kid."

She heard their voices out in the hall before she heard the door opening. The way Luke spoke of their son to Rory, relaying a few details to her, made her heart swell with pride again. Though she was tired, she brightened when Rory came into view.

"Grandma and Grandpa were a little upset that Luke only asked me to come in here," Rory said as way of greeting. "But I think I talked them into some understanding."

"They're still out there?" Lorelai asked, knowing that they had followed them to the hospital but she was almost sure that they would've went home at some point during the night.

Rory gave a nod of her head. "Grandma demanded that she should be given a clean sheet and a pillow since the waiting room furniture was dreadfully uncomfortable."

That sounded more like her mother. "Tell me you have a picture of that."

"You did ask me to bring a camera to the test run," Rory answered.

"Okay, that aside," Lorelai dismissed the conversation of her parents. With her arm that wasn't holding her son, she waved Rory closer to the bed. "Come meet your brother."

Rory moved as close as she could to the bed. Now that he was actually there and the actual labor part was over, she wasn't freaked out about being in the room. "He's adorable," she cooed.

"Would you like to hold him?" She asked. "He doesn't bite."

Rory responded that of course she would love to hold her baby brother. Besides it was important to bond early on with babies and she was going to make sure that she was the best big sister to her brother even with their unique age difference. But she wanted to be seated before holding him because, though she held Davey a few times, she wasn't exactly confident in her walking and holding a baby skills. Even if she was quite proficient at navigating through a crowd while reading a book. Those skills didn't exactly match up.

After Luke had taken their son from her arms and carried him over to Rory who sat in a chair opposite of the hospital bed, Lorelai laid her head back against the pillow and watched her daughter with her baby brother. Luke sat back down on the edge of the bed, watching too as Rory whispered promises of introducing him to all the classics. The classic books would come first in the form of reading to him at night.

After a few minutes Rory looked up from her sleeping baby brother's face and back to her mother. "This whole trying to bond with him would help if I knew what you decided to name him. I can't go through his whole life calling him baby, that's setting him up for ridicule."

"But baby boy had such a nice ring to it," Lorelai teased. She shared a glance with Luke over the name they had decided on a couple months back. "We decided on Matthew Ryan Danes."

"I like it." Rory smiled down at her baby brother, "Hi Matthew."

"So, and be honest," Lorelai said pointedly, her attention on Rory, "I know you asked for a baby sister when you were five and I took a long time to deliver on that promise and now you have a brother, are you disappointed?"

"Only a little," Rory went along with her mother. She looked down at tiny features of her brother. "He's cute, I'll get over it."

"Good to know." Lorelai nudged Luke gently with her foot. "Want to go fetch the grandparents?"

He responded with a nod of his head. "I'll be right back."

Rory watched him out of the corner of her eye as he went. "He's going to be a good dad."

She smiled wistfully. "He already is."

In mere seconds, her parents were in the room following closely behind Luke who bore the expression of someone verbally accosted by Emily Gilmore. But if he was, and she was sure that her mother did say something especially with Rory's mention that her mother wasn't exactly thrilled to be asked in the room after her, it quickly wore off when they took notice of the baby that was now in Luke's arms again.

"Mom, Dad," she addressed her parents who weren't even focusing on her but on their grandchild she was trying to introduce them to. "Meet your grandson, Matthew."

"Matthew," Emily repeated softly. She met Luke's gaze. "May I hold him?"

Lorelai watched from the bed when Luke moved as gently as he possibly could to place their son into her arms. She smiled, watching as her mother lifted the baby closer to her, holding him close while moving closer to Richard who looked on in awe over the tiny sleeping baby. She was reminded of a similar scene eighteen years ago but this time she wasn't plagued with questions over why she chose to name the kid after herself and where exactly Christopher was and why wasn't he there for the birth of their daughter. This time was actually peaceful. Besides the whole pushing a kid out of her body.

When Rory offered up her chair to Emily, Lorelai gestured for her daughter to join her on the bed. As soon as she did, Lorelai threw her arm around her daughter's shoulders. "You know you're still my favorite daughter, right?"

She grinned at their familiar joke. "I bet you say that to all your daughters."

"I only mean it with you." She hugged her daughter tightly. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that so you won't get jealous when I have to push you to the side and spend all my time with your little brother. Babies are a lot of work."

"I'll try to control my jealousy."

"That's my girl."

* * *

 **Again, I know small update. But it's just an introduction to their child while skipping over most of the labor details. I was never too interested in writing the process of labor.**

 **Anyways. I posted this on Tumblr but for those of you who just read the story on here and don't follow on Tumblr, I wanted to say that I've made the decision that this story will wrap up soon. I know where I want to carry it and think I can finish it out in a few more chapters. Just to get to a place that I think is good for these characters I care about dearly. And while we're on the subjects of my writing, I have also decided to not continue with "Piecing Us Back Together." Reading back over the story, I wasn't happy with what I developed. I didn't like the story line as much as I did when I first started writing it. There are choices I made that I do not agree with. I hate that I'm abandoning the story but I'm not happy with the story I started to weave. Sorry for leaving you hanging.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated.**


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